Backcountry Skiing/Splitboarding – Red Mountain Glades

Our tour will leave from the winter trailhead on Coronet Drive in Blue River. Approx. coordinates in Google Maps here.

Those interested will meet at Wooly Mammoth Park n’ Ride, ready to leave by 5:45am. Meeting spot is the SW portion of the parking lot, across from the Exxon. The exact location can be found here on Google Maps.

We may end up setting up other carpools as well based on folks’ locations (e.g., I live in Dillon).

We will be skiing/boarding the north-facing trees off the bottom half of Red Mountain, just south of Breckenridge. To be clear - this is the Red Mountain south of Breckenridge (near Blue River), NOT Red Peak B west of Silverthorne.

The terrain is moderate (most sections in the 15-20 degree range) with no avalanche terrain to worry about, and lots of different line options across the entire north-facing ridge. The trees are mostly moderately spaced, getting farther apart farther up the ridge. There are a few sections with tight trees, but for the most part it is very manageable. This area surprisingly does not get much traffic, so we will likely have pretty fresh tracks! 

The first half of the ascent is on a road/trail that runs due east and is pretty flat. Warning: If you are a splitboarder you will need to skin out this entire portion at the end of the day. If you are a skier, you can get down with a lot of poling and effort (but still faster/better than skinning).

We will then turn off the trail and go south up the ridge at the bottom of Red Mountain. We will NOT attempt to get to the top; it is very wind-blown and the skiing is not good. Instead, we will aim to do 2 laps of the north-facing trees on the lower section of the mountain before continuing back down the trail/road to the cars. For each lap, we will go as high as we can and still get good snow that is not wind-affected. If folks are tired after one lap, we may only do one. It depends on how the group is feeling.

While our pace will be moderate (~1.5 MPH), we will have to transition/stop several times - likely at least once ascending to de-layer, as well as transitions at the top and bottom of each lap (and potentially to skin the trail/road out at the end if you are a splitboarder) - so this will not be a fast-moving tour. I would expect that we will be finished around 12-1pm, but may be as late as 2pm if folks are excited to get more laps :) 

This is a great trip for those who are newer to the backcountry and looking for a slower, more understanding pace and guidance along-the-way. However, you must already know how to backcountry ski/snowboard and have successfully completed at least 3 backcountry tours or graduated from the CMC’s Intro to Backcountry Skiing & Snowboarding course. You must also be comfortable in black diamond terrain inbounds. Like every backcountry tour, expect variable snow conditions, tight trees, and narrow ski tracks on the way out. AIARE 1 is recommended.

We will be doing the route in green on this Caltopo map. The route indicated for the north-facing trees is approximate (we may actually ascend/descent farther left or right of the line - and we may not go as high as indicated depending on snow quality); the lower half of the route is on a trail/road and is more precise.