Innagural Dawn Patrol

Pat & I went up to the East Portal this morning for our first morning backcountry skiing excursion (aka Dawn Patrol). Here are some quick highlights:

• The usual Tolland snow drift formed. We stopped before the drift to check the depth. A school bus drove up a minute later, tried to drive through the drift & got stock. 30 minutes of shoveling her out & we decided to wait for a plow.
  
  A pickup truck showed up, started plowing, and got stuck. 30 more minutes of digging to get him out, and we decided to head back to Boulder.
  
  30 seconds later a CDOT grader came through & effortlessly cleaned up the drift. We turned around *again* & headed towards the East Portal.
  
  
  
• The school bus needs to drive past the drift Monday through Friday around 6:30am.
• The CDOT plow only works Monday through Thursday & has Fridays off... DONT go on Dawn Patrol early Friday mornings under windy/snow conditions.
  
• The trees near the East Portal (along the Arapahoe Lakes trailhead) got 12" of new snow on top of a 12" to 18" base of compacted snow.