When we leave the house at 10:30, the temperature has risen, but the snowbank besides the driveway is still amazing. It will take weeks and weeks to melt all this snow.
We leave the house, cross the street, climb the snow bank and begin following the ridge up towards Crow's Nest. The north facing snow is light powder, the southern aspects are crusty and hard. In the sun it';s soggy, but the views are stupendous. We wind our way up the ridge savoring the clear sky and wonderful views of Van Norden Meadow, and Serene Lakes.
The southwest wind has deposited a sizable cornice on the north side of the ridge. The snow is very consolidated now and there is no sign of fracture or instability so we proceed.
We drop off the ridge on the south side before "Anna's Pass" and find this protected lunch spot.
at Anna's Pass, we pick up the alignment of the Bogus Basin trail (ungroomed), and followed that to Claim Jumper. This trail had a nice downhill glide, refreshing after our morning of bushwhacking up the ridge. Had fiun with making short videos on the way home.
Decided that since we were getting more house guests, I would dig out the 3rd bedroom's windows which had become buried in the last two storm cycles. Still, not much sunlight will get in here, but at least if there is a fire, the window opens and one can crawl out into the snow well to escape. I dug the snow out a few feet and down to the window sill height.
This is a view from Lyle's Lookout on a previous tour. I'm all duded out in ski patrol garb, as we were at Royal Gorge and I could patrol and have family fun at the same time.
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