Is late November too early for general snow and snow couloir climbs in Colorado? Is the snow stable enough for climbing? I am planning to drive up to Colorado from Houston during the thanksgiving week. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Well, lemme' see ... how can I put this?

Here you go: http://avalanche.state.co.us/pub/accide ... t=20091101

And that's just October. November is poised to be even more fun. And that takes us into the best months during which to get reaped in an avalanche, namely December, January and February.

Your call.

Yup, better save those snow climbs for the late summer when there's no snow that could possibly avalanche.

Snow is usually not very well consolidated that early in the year. There's a good chance that you would be walking in deep snow, or over snow covered rocks. If you're not confident in your avalanche predicting ability, I would suggest staying out of couloirs and off steep, open slopes. If you decide to do slopes and couloirs, definitely go with a group, carry rescue gear and know how to use it.

There are plenty of ridge climbs and lower angle slopes that are doable that time of year. Many ridge climbs also have the snow blown clear, making for easier travel. Approaching some ridges can be dicey, but avoiding avy terrain is often possible as long as you know how to read the terrain.

I've gotta go with pinscar on this one. This last storm we had dropped a lot of powder on the Front Range mountains and now we're having really warm weather that'll set up a good solid slab on top of the weaker layers underneath.

It's going to be a challenging year, I believe.

Is late November too early for general snow and snow couloir climbs in Colorado? Is the snow stable enough for climbing?

Spring and early summer are the best time for most couloir climbs (there are exceptions), but late November is usually great for ridge lines. Avy danger is usually low on most ridgeline and huge cornices usually aren't built up yet. Snow isn't usually very consolidated yet, but sometimes can hard and windblown high up. Even forgetting about avy danger (which shouldn't be done of course), snow conditions would likely be very poor and unconsolidated in most couloir routes.

Well, lemme' see ... how can I put this?

Here you go: http://avalanche.state.co.us/pub/accide ... t=20091101

True, but keep in mind that the storm was mostly a Front Range thing. Much of Colorado was missed including many of the mountain ranges. Normally snowy locations such as Steamboat and Aspen were mostly missed by the storm (in town only a skiff and up high less than a foot in most places) and many other places were missed as well. I heard Silverthorne was missed too, but don't know if they got hit by the second round, so they may have gotten more. Either way many, probably even most areas in Colorado were missed by the storm.

Here you go! Early season snow is very unpredictable, and can be deadly! These guys were skiing, but early season avalanches get hunters and climbers too!

http://www.missoulaavalanche.org/pdf/ge ... 102409.pdf

Be safe! Heed the warnings!

Here is another report worth reading, it may not be local, but it is appropriate!

http://www.mtavalanche.com/sites/defaul ... .31.09.pdf

Ski Safe

A few of us want to hit Gilpin or Uncompahgre in the Northern San Juans just after Turkey Day, but I have my doubts about attempting such peaks this time of year. Are there any worthy ridges in reach right now? I was thinking Snowdon. What do you guys think?