# To Monarch!



## danger (Oct 13, 2003)

25" in 24hrs. deep.


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

35" storm total, I hope you made it up Nathan...


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## Fluid Dreams (Jan 9, 2007)

*Hometown mountain*

I love hearing great things about my hometown mountain!


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## marko (Feb 25, 2004)

Monarch on Saturday was incredible! It was one of the best days of skiing I have had in years. We went back up today to get the hiking freshies only to find out that a power outage shut down all of Monarch. We got some coffee and heard that they had no idea how long it would take to fix the power outage so we left. I'm glad I only had to drive from BV.


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

I second that Marko. We actually hiked one lap under the Breezeway and watched them dig up the catwalk to the Garfield chair before we left. Turns out a transformer blew next to the chair and they had to dig the snow out to the ground to allow an Excel truck in to replace it! Hopefully it's done for tomorrow, I do feel bad for those that drove from distances though...


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## NathanH. (Mar 17, 2010)

I have a serious dislike for all of you. No one wanted to go, no Pow for Nathan...


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## Mike Harvey (Oct 10, 2003)

pretty epic storm. today was a total washout though. I had four kids chomping at the bit and it was a no go. I was reading Newsweek at the pool by 1pm while the kids played wondering how it all could have gone so wrong. 

Friday was off the hook. It was snowing at an incredible intensity and was really dry and skiing fast. Stoked to get up there in the morning and shred what should have been today's pow.


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## Snowhere (Feb 21, 2008)

I agree friday was the bomb! For a couple of hours there we were getting 3" a hour. The snow at the top of Mirk was chest deep and I was getting face shots off every turn. There was no one on the hill so every run was fresh tracks. 

Saturday was good too but it was definitely a zoo. I dodged the crowds all day and I was pretty successful at it. I took today off to take my kids sledding and I was blissfully unaware of the problems up there. I will have to head up tomorrow to get the rest of the pow!


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## Ken Vanatta (May 29, 2004)

Yep, Saturday was one of the best ever. Certainly over 3' and even 4' deep blown into Mirkwood. Reh Lynn and I made three early hikes to freshies in 3 Snags, Staircase, and East Trees. The slopes were loaded and sliding with us. Every turn was a whoo-hoo and face shots. Similar experience at the in-area lift served trees, too. Wish everyday could be like that.


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## Jahve (Oct 31, 2003)

Sounds like quite the weekend up at monarch.. 

Stories were running rampant here around bv - of towed cars on sat complete with a stuck wrecker, a full on avy burial of a solo skier on the road of all places sunday, then the power went out shutting her down for a day and stranding folks on the lift.. Yea wild times at monarch.. 

All kiddin aside it was a epic storm and it is good that you boys had fun.. Also ken if you want it to be like that everyday get a sled and learn to ride then you can have epic pow lines at your fingertips when ever you choose..

Yea our little ma and pa ski hill seems to be growin up a bit..


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## Ken Vanatta (May 29, 2004)

RDNEK said:


> Also ken if you want it to be like that everyday get a sled and learn to ride then you can have epic pow lines at your fingertips when ever you choose.


Yeah, Nek. I've been meaning to ask if you have a weekend opportunity to share the goods sometime? You're right, I don't own a sled yet. If needed, I could ask my rippin' out of town ski buds along with their sleds. I don't know how you feel about that. I'd be interested in discovering what you're out enjoying around here, though. Let me know.

Thanks and power to you.

Cheers!

Ken


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## fids11 (Nov 26, 2009)

a full on avy burial of a solo skier on the road of all places sunday, . 

I read about this on CAIC. A guy gets fully buried with a ski pole showing and gets rescued by someone who sees it all from a car???? Wow, talk about guardian angel! Glad the guy is ok, anyone know any more details from this avalanche?


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

fids11 said:


> a full on avy burial of a solo skier on the road of all places sunday, .
> 
> I read about this on CAIC. A guy gets fully buried with a ski pole showing and gets rescued by someone who sees it all from a car???? Wow, talk about guardian angel! Glad the guy is ok, anyone know any more details from this avalanche?


There is a little more info in the Mountain Mail:

Winter storm causes mayhem at Monarch

article says it happened 2 miles west of the summit, on the Gunny side. I saw a natural slide coming down from the summit of the pass around 1 pm Sunday. Believe it or not, there was a plow in front of me...it fell right in front of it, blocking most of the road, but he waved me around before plowing it.


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## Jahve (Oct 31, 2003)

Yea Ken we will have to get you up one of these sunday's. I will look at what I have going on and give you a call when I get a chance..

Also the article touched on it but it is about time that the USFS approves what monarch is asking for. The parking up there is getting to be a problem on busy or big snow days and they need to be able to open up more terrain and more parking. Other than "legally" hiking merkwood nothing has changed up there in my 30 years of skiing at monarch. If we want the same feel to continue up at monarch there will have to be more terrain/parking as the past few years monarch has attracted more and more folks.

From what I hear the expansion is working its way through the system but will likely be bogged down with lawsuits from the enviro-natzi type groups who are going to sue everyone to keep monarch and the parking lot the same size as it is now. I hope that the USFS can see these groups for what they are and approve what monarch needs to expand and keep the feel of one of the best ski area's in colorado intact..

Ok I will get off the soap box now.


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

Your right JV. The marketing guys say that the new parking area will be above the snowcat/maintainence shed, and they have implied that with this new parking they will be able to finally install the backside Pano lift....that will be nice


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## twitch (Oct 16, 2003)

Monarch was like this on Saturday:









It was pretty epic.

The slide that trapped the skier was in Gracies by my understanding. After seeing just how much snow was piled up in areas like Mirkwood, back-country skiing in known slide paths wasn't the best call for Sunday.


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## marko (Feb 25, 2004)

Snowhere said:


> Saturday was good too but it was definitely a zoo.


That's funny. This is my first winter not skiing in Breckenridge, and only skiing at Monarch. To hear somebody say that Saturday was a 'zoo' kind of amuses me. The longest lift line I waited in was about 5 minutes. Try waiting in 45 minute lift lines and seeing an entire mountain (all 2400 acres) get tracked up by noon, and you will re-think what a ski area zoo looks and feels like.


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## Snowhere (Feb 21, 2008)

LOL marko! You should not be giving away our secret! Its funny how spoiled I get. I left smut county in 2002 because I could not take the constant crowds that Interwest and Vail brought to the mountains because of all the buddy passes. I saw all my powder stashes dissapear and had to fight for my untracked pow. Now I won't tolerate 10min lift lines because I can. I called it a zoo because pano had both sides of the maze full at 9:45. I switched to breezeway and proceded to make 5 laps in mirk so I was happy. It may have been a little zoo, but zoo it was for Monarch prior to spring break crowds. It took me a couple of years to really wean myself off our resorts to the north and I am much happier skiing here and south instead.


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## lmyers (Jun 10, 2008)

Dumped all day again today....literally shitting snow at the rate of 1-2 inches per hour. Today was sick, tomorrow will be another good day....just sayin'


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