Berthoud Pass PWD9

Parting ways with Danger and Fatty to avoid confrontation with the Man, Ministoner and I decided on a little exploration. Parking at Berthoud Pass we set off to the southeast with the intent of shredding a zone on the southwest face of Colorado Mines Peak known as Floral Park. Here's a pic of Ministoner happy as a clam after our little 45min hike.

Here's a long shot of the Floral Park zone seen from north bound I-40 heading toward Berthoud Pass. We basically dropped from the top of the barren area in the middle of the pic and headed toward looker's right and the funnel shaped avy path through the trees in the bottom right of the pic.

Looking back up the avy chute from the bottom, you can see with some backcountry knowledge, an understanding of the current avy conditions and a little determination, fun lines can be found and shredded for free.

Ministoner had his heart set on a road-gap attempt, but after consulting the chiken bones we decided against it. Ten minutes of hitching procured us a ride back to the top of the pass from some migrant Tennessee honky-tonker.

Back at the pass, we found this fine mutant of a human.... while on his way to a Phish concert he got lost and was forced to eat a couple kids on a Church fieldtrip and steal their toboggan. When informed that kids have nearly zero nutritional value Sandals tried to sell us the toboggan, but I wasn't interested and told him with a little luck he could probably make a rescue fire from it.

This is what happens in Colorado when you leave your hose on in the winter.

If I had only known that there would be a leprechaun convention at Invesco Field in Denver I would have brought my green hat.

Injured member of Team Get Awesome, Wass gazes longingly to the sun setting over the Rockies from D-town.

Kicking in D-town I reflected on the journey to this point, thousands of miles had been covered, seven of North America's most renowned ski areas had been conquered, I shreded the gnar in two countries and four seperate states, and most importantly I was getting the kids outside to play. When in doubt point it down hill.