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San Juan Recon

Forum for snow- and landkiters
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matthepp
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Local Beach: RMP
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Kino Bay
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby matthepp » Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:13 am

Today was a sick bird day on Big Mac! Warm temps, sunny bluebird skies, strong upslope winds, and deep pow in the basins above treeline. I kited til I couldn't feel my kegs anymore.

I hear there's a big posse heading for freshies on Snow Mesa. I wish I could be there. Have a blast!
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matthepp
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Kino Bay
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Style: Rich
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby matthepp » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:32 am

Jarosa Mesa 1-26-14 Trip Report:
It hasn't snowed around here in a long time and we were all getting delirium tremens from lack of pow. Further, our standard route up to Red Mountain Pass is closed due to a huge rockslide! So a couple of us West-San-Juaners rallied east to meet up with Scott and Tony from Gunny. We will be forever indebted to Scott for supplying the "truck-trailer-snow machine-tow rope" setup! Off to Spring Creek Pass, then west to massive Jarosa Mesa. It's the mirror image of Snow Mesa and a bit lower in elevation so we we're hoping to find some pockets of soft snow. Kites went up before noon up on the ridge near Point 71. George and I have been scheming to pull off a big kite traverse of the San Juans, so we explored part of the route further west. After a few laps of bullet hard windslab and building NW winds, we dropped down to the south side and got into softer and softer snow all day long. We took a perfectly untracked basin and turned it into a mogul field by late afternoon! At the end of the day, George and Scott toured back by kite as far east as possible. Meanwhile Tony and I had a real tough time jumping on the snow machines for the ride out. The winter late day colors and the steady breeze were difficult to leave behind. The scale of this place is unbelievable! Can't wait to come back when it's all freshened up with new powder. The old adage around these parts is that the snow will be back after the Superbowl, so go Broncos I reckon...
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rvrrat
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Local Beach: Garrett County Md.
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby rvrrat » Tue Jan 28, 2014 1:57 pm

Awesome crew! Would like to have been part of it. Scott is definetely the host with the most! I am gonna have to make SW Colorado a regular pitstop. JR

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matthepp
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby matthepp » Mon Feb 10, 2014 5:20 pm

Yeah, hit the reset button, winter is back! "Best day ever" roadside yesterday on Lizard Head. Say 16" fresh powder with more horizontal snow coming down all day. Usually these storm days are rowdy but somehow we got steady winds perfect for the big kites. Unadulterated crater-fest! Great day to try all kinds of new challenging tricks with no-repercussion landings. Each winter seems to make it more and more difficult to return to the liquid kiting come summertime...
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matthepp
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby matthepp » Fri Apr 04, 2014 4:44 pm

A classic Uncompaghre Gorge storm dumped a foot of fresh yesterday. Light winds but enough to track it all up at the 'lunch spot'. The peaks are looking happy and plastered with enough white to keep the brown layers at bay for a while. We should have good spring conditions for a while!
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matthepp
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Gear: OR Flite 15m
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby matthepp » Tue May 06, 2014 5:02 pm

George and Lorne kite the absolute headwaters of the Rio Grande on Cinco de Mayo.
The high country snow is going fast! Only a few snowkite missions left for the year...
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matthepp
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Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:51 am
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Kino Bay
Red Mountain Pass
Style: Rich
Gear: OR Flite 15m
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby matthepp » Tue May 20, 2014 3:17 pm

High country session 5-19-14 with Scott from Gunny (thanks to San Juan County plow hero Old Dave). More winter up high this May than the last several years. Last year there were just a few sad patches of brown snow left. This year everything is still covered with white, but the hints of brown are returning with the warm, sunny, windy days. Old Dave has had to plow out Cinnamon Pass three times due to big storms filling in the road. Sunday, after digging the truck out of deep freshies, we put the skins on for a short approach to catch nice winds blowing directly up 1400 feet of vertical gain on the SW slopes of Siegal Mountain. A perfect day to soak in the views of the peaks and log lots of turns for free!

Interesting how much more snow is north of Silverton versus just 10 miles south...
Siegal Mountain 5-18-14 kites.pdf
(358.03 KiB) Downloaded 109 times
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matthepp
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Posts: 491
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:51 am
Local Beach: RMP
Favorite Beaches: La Ventana
Kino Bay
Red Mountain Pass
Style: Rich
Gear: OR Flite 15m
OR Razor 12m
OR Prodigy 7m 9.5m
BD Carbon Megawatts
Slingshot Dwarfcraft/ Gamma 68
Brand Affiliation: Alpine Edge Engineering
Location: Ridgway
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby matthepp » Tue May 20, 2014 7:09 pm

Scott snapped a photo of an accidental backroll megaloop that didn't end well Ha! More importantly, good alpine Colorado scenery in the background. (Noah, just for you, per your request)
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CaptainArgh
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby CaptainArgh » Wed May 21, 2014 1:07 pm

matthepp wrote:High country session 5-19-14 with Scott from Gunny (thanks to San Juan County plow hero Old Dave). More winter up high this May than the last several years. Last year there were just a few sad patches of brown snow left. This year everything is still covered with white, but the hints of brown are returning with the warm, sunny, windy days. Old Dave has had to plow out Cinnamon Pass three times due to big storms filling in the road. Sunday, after digging the truck out of deep freshies, we put the skins on for a short approach to catch nice winds blowing directly up 1400 feet of vertical gain on the SW slopes of Siegal Mountain. A perfect day to soak in the views of the peaks and log lots of turns for free!...
That's a hell of a GPS track you shared! Wow. Looks like a killer day. 5/19...still snowkiting on white. Epic.

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Noahpz
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Re: San Juan Recon

Postby Noahpz » Wed May 21, 2014 3:57 pm

Nice photo! Our local spot, Beartooth Hwy, opens on Friday, 23 May. I'm heading up today. Can't wait!


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