It has been an awful winter. Just by the numbers. Right now the Arkansas River Basin is about as low as we have ever recorded. This last storm gave us a slight boost away from the record breaking historical low we were at before. It shows in the mountains. Many go-to zones are still dry boneyards, even on North aspects above 11k.

Of course this makes for iffy skiing, but it also raises concerns for the rest of the year. Many are worried for what is shaping up to be a very dangerous fire season and a bad river season. My mom has been ill and in general the world has felt a little gray. Combined with the historically troubling news cycles, it has been hard to really care about skiing.

And yet, I found myself among friends in the snow this weekend. Which didn’t fix anything, but it helped easy the hurt just a little. I haven’t really done any skiing photography this year, so I decided to bring the camera to my favorite zone on Monarch Pass. 

We got 16″ of new snow on essentially dirt and crust. So despite the storm’s ferociousness we did still hit a few rocks.

But it does highlight the one thing about skiing that is kind of important: Spending time with people you care about. So that is kinda what that was. 

Anyways, I hope it snows again soon. Go spend time with someone you love and maybe attend a protest. We got work to do.

-Dave