Resorts open ungroomed terrain for those seeking 'extreme' snow

It may make their lawyers and insurers shiver, but Colorado ski resorts are opening terrain that's more backcountry than groomed highway.

The growing popularity of "extreme" skiing and snowboarding among young people has prompted ski areas in Colorado to unfurl terrain that combines the best of all worlds: ungroomed, steep, challenging but accessible to some degree by lifts and avalanche-controlled.

Some areas adventurous skiers might want to check out this season include:

Highland Bowl, a huge steep bowl behind Aspen Highlands, is accessible by hiking out on a ridge. This year, the ski area will offer snowcat lifts for skiers unwilling to make the slog along the ridge-line. The Highlands' sister resort, Snowmass, also offers some wild terrain in Hanging Valley Wall and Burnt Mountain. Hanging Valley offers steep, wide-open skiing in an above-treeline bowl. Burnt Mountain features three-mile-long tree skiing, some of which can be tackled by intermediates.

Berthoud Pass, the oldest ski area in Colorado, allows skiers to exit the ski-area proper and ski down either south or north sides of the pass. The terrain, while patrolled and controlled, is steep, with pitches between 30 and 48 degrees, about double what you'll find on most ski hills. It's also often heavily treed and spotted with cliffs and chutes. The ski area operates buses to shuttle skiers back up to the top of the pass.

Breckenridge, popular with families and flatlanders, also offers some terrain for the dudes and dudettes. Peak 7 is accessed by a poma lift and a fairly arduous hike. The wide-open bowl features 30 percent more snow than in the middle of the mountain. Perhaps the toughest terrain is to be found in the east-facing Lake Chutes. Accessed off Chair 6, the chutes feature only a 600-foot vertical drop but pitches approaching 50 degrees in steepness - one wild ride.

Crested Butte, one of the first ski areas in Colorado to embrace extreme skiing, this year will sponsor the 10th annual U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championship. The hot skiers play on 550 acres of double- black terrain called North Face or Extreme Limits. Nasty pitches, cliffs, trees, chutes, rocks, weird fall lines - the area has it all. The terrain is accessed by a poma lift. This year, the area also hopes to open up Teocalli Bowl, a high-Alpine area with more double- black terrain.

Vail doesn't have many areas an expert would classify as "extreme." But it does have huge bowls with great fall lines, long vertical drops and gorgeous views of the Gore range and the Holy Cross Wilderness. It also has Blue Sky Basin, 645 acres opened last year and added to this year. It features a cornice or two, some glades, and a lot of wide-open intermediate terrain. It's also lightly groomed and accessible by three high-speed quad chairlifts.

Winter Park's offering to the gods of steep and deep is Vasquez Cirque, accessed from the top of Parsenn Bowl on the Mary Jane side of the mountain. A 20- to 30-minute hike brings skiers to a 2,500- vertical-foot drop through an open bowl, with glades down below. The pitch is ferocious, with some parts of the cirque tipping steeply at a 55-degree slope. Skiers unwilling to slog along the ridge-line can pay $5 for a snowmobile tow.

Other areas in Colorado, including Monarch, Steamboat and Telluride, offer challenging terrain that will delight the most die- hard skier. A visit to a ski area's Web site often will provide details.

Those heading for "extreme terrain" should know there's usually a pretty good hike to it, hazards aren't marked, bad weather can close it quickly, and it usually won't have enough snow to open before Christmas.

But when it does ... it's heaven. And you don't need to carry a shovel.

Avalanche awareness

Last season, 1,666 avalanches were reported to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (23 percent below the average of 2,160). There were eight avalanche deaths (two above the average), because with a shallow snow cover, it was easy for backcountry recreation- alists to trigger slides much of the winter.

A large avalanche in North America might release 300,000 cubic yards of snow. That's the equivalent of 20 football fields filled 10- foot deep with snow. However, such large avalanches often are naturally released. Skiers and recreationalists usually are caught in smaller but often more deadly avalanches.

80 percent to 90 percent of all avalanches take place before, during, and shortly after storms.

Snow falling at an inch per hour or 1/2-inch per hour with wind raises avalanche danger and sustained winds of 15 mph or stronger can boost the danger.

Lengthy cold snaps destabilize the snowpack; warm temperatures (above freezing) boost stability.

Slab avalanches are the most common and deadly, where layers of a snowpack fail and slide down the slope. Since 1950, 235 people in the United States have been killed in slab avalanches. Hard -slab avalanches involve large blocks of snow and debris sliding down a slope. In soft-slab ones, the snow breaks up into smaller blocks.

Most occur on slopes between 30 and 45 degrees, but they can occur on any slope angles given the right conditions. Very wet snow will be well lubricated with water, meaning it might avalanche on a slope of only 10 to 25 degrees. Very dry or granular snow most likely will avalanche on a slope close to the 22-degree angle of repose. Compacted, well-bonded layers create a snowpack that can cling to steeper slopes until a weak layer is created.

Avalanche checklist:

What have the weather conditions been for the past few days? Recent heavy snows?

Can you observe any wind loading on the slopes?

Do you have a good sense of the snowpack? Have you performed any snowpit or shear tests?

Have you noticed many fracture lines, heard "whumping" or cracking sounds or hollow noises in the snowpack?

Are you keeping an eye on the orientation and steepness of the slopes as you cross them?

Are you lingering in gullies, bowls or valleys?

Noticed recent avalanche activity on other slopes like the one you are on?

If a slope looks suspect, are there alternative routes?

Avalanche warning signs:

Old slide paths with broken trees or uprooted smaller ones, paths of previous snow slides.

Recent avalanche activity - snow- balls or cartwheels rolling downslope.

The sounds of cracks or booms in the snow.

High elevations - most avalanches start above timberline.

Avalanche information:

Call 520-0020; or check on the Internet, www.caic.state.co.us/

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