Backcountry Nordic Skiing – Rabbit Ears Pass

This is the third part of a two-day trip. Contact the Trip leader to register for this trip. You will need BCX skis for this trip because skinny skis will sink in the powder (60 mm wide, a bit more is better). The trail can be icy so I HIGHLY recommend also kicker skins. Note because the slopes are short and not very steep it is NOT an AT trip.

You may just sign up for this trip, but people planning to participant for the entire weekend will be given priority (if you are not interested in the entire weekend I'll put you on "Cancel Pending" to hold a spot, I will move you up to participant if the weekend trip does not fill). The weekend will consist of this a Beginner BCX trip on Saturday, the Full Moon Event at the Colorado State Forest State Park Saturday evening, an overnight stay in Walden (you need to make your own reservations, see Leader notes), and finally a this BCX ski at Rabbit Ears Pass on Sunday. The Beginner BCX trip is listed separately on the calendar let me know if you want to register for both.

This trip we will start at the West Summit Trailhead, note this area is pretty popular so we will leave from Walden relatively early. From the trailhead we will go up on the 1A Loop. Along the uphill route there is one area where we will take a short powder run. The group will continue uphill to a large meadow where we will make two or three runs in the powder. Then rather than continuing on-trail we will go downhill off-trail to intersect the 1A loop below. Note that the trip leader has not done this off-trail portion so it will be an adventure!

I have made reservations for at the North Park Inn ($171 for two queen beds, with a kitchen) for Saturday night. I already have others sharing this room. Jodi (co-leader) has also made reservations at this location and would like to share her room with one other woman.  Others will need to make their own reservations. Note we have also stayed at the Antlers Inn in Walden which is nice and has a restaurant downstairs. The cost for a two queen or two full bed room is $140. The two hotels are very close to each other so it will not cause problems if you chose to stay at the Antlers Inn. Last year the rooms filled up so don’t wait too long to arrange for accomidations.

Link to North Park Inn. https://www.northparkinnandsuites.com

Link to Antlers Inn http://www.waldenantlersinn.com/home.aspx