By now most folks living in the valley are ready to move on to the next season of activities, but with snow cover transforming to mud and muck, in order to get out for decent hiking and biking, one has to get out of town. For those rare individuals who can’t get enough sliding on snow, or don’t have the time or inclination to leave the valley, we can just move up in elevation to keep the skis sliding, or just to get outside and enjoy some fresh air activity. Alpine enthusiasts are blessed with enough spring slush and the occasional whitening refresher to keep the chairs turning a little longer. Due to the good conditions that prevailed through the winter, Devil’s Thumb Ranch XC Center has extended their season until April 28th, assuming that the weather is in their favor.
The early April snowfall buried the crust temporarily, but seasonal warming is causing the recession of the snowpack to proceed inevitably towards spring and summer. April can be the snowiest month for Colorado, but thus far this year we have not seen that to be the trend. While we were threatened early in the month with another storm to rival the bomb cyclone of March, predictions of doom did not bear out. The battle wages on between fresh, white new snow and dirty old snow that is less amenable to sliding, but the flurries have produced a less significant addition to the moisture than we might typically see this time of year, if anything is considered typical anymore. We continue to be one of the few places in the civilized world where we have the potential to get 6 months of snow cover on the ground, so we might as well take advantage of it.
Happy Trails!
