Very little sun hits these slopes between November and February, and they are protected from the prevailing winds. The north-facing slopes on the ridges are refrigerated snow magnets. As a result, you can find excellent runs down the north-facing slopes of these ridges. Just enough trees to keep the sun and wind out and plenty of space to initiate turns.Īnother unique feature of Wolf Creek is that most of the runs start from ridges that run northeast. But up close and on skis, you can see that these forests are perfect for skiing. From a distance, the forests look like any other Colorado forests: thick and impenetrable. To the joy of skiers, the thinning created perfect glade skiing. Instead of clear cutting, the Forest Service removed enough trees to "thin" the forest. But at Wolf Creek Pass, in the Rio Grande National Forest, the US Forest service implemented a tree harvesting program, affectionately called the STEP program by local skiers-Selective Telemark Enhancement Program. Normally, the forests in Colorado below timberline are too thick to ski through. Wolf Creek Pass is unique in Colorado in that the best skiing is in the trees. In most seasons it has double or triple the snowpack of the northern or central Colorado mountains, and often has a 50-60 inch base by Thanksgiving. Wolf Creek Pass is known for its deep, stable snowpack. OverviewFirst of all, I want to thank the person from whom I am plagiarizing a big part of this write-up for all the work that they did at the link at the bottom of this section.
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