In the past 29 days the temperature around here has averaged around 50 degrees, and for the most part we've had very little rain in the forecast. This means the snow levels have gone through the roof, and what little snow we had was rapidly melting.
With the South End Hypothermia Run scheduled for next weekend, I was very curious to check out how bad the conditions really were. I had Ryan (nightfoam) riding with me, and two other rigs from Piston's Wild along for the adventure.
My goal was to keep the day short, and just get a feel for the snow condition and levels. We first started up the 4211, and found snow around 3000' (for reference on the 1rst we hit snow at 1500'). The snow was extremely heavy and wet, and parts of the road were partially drifted.
~7psi seemed to do the trick. We continued up the 4211 and eventually connected onto the 53rd where it leveled off at 3500'. We made steady progress over the 53 to the large rock quarry. This was the place I had picked out where we would be camping and igloo building.
There's maybe two feet of snow at most.
Took a quick lunch break.
From there we continued on and started heading down the 42rd. I was kicking it back into 2wd within a mile.
Took a detour on the way back, and did some exploring. No snow at the Silver Star trail head (3000').
It was a fun day even though the conditions weren't the greatest. The snow although it was wet and heavy, seemed to cooperate. There were a few areas where the water created some washouts in the snow. This required a bit of off camber crawling near the cliff side, which is always a fun time.
Ryan should have a lot more pictures to add.
With the South End Hypothermia Run scheduled for next weekend, I was very curious to check out how bad the conditions really were. I had Ryan (nightfoam) riding with me, and two other rigs from Piston's Wild along for the adventure.
My goal was to keep the day short, and just get a feel for the snow condition and levels. We first started up the 4211, and found snow around 3000' (for reference on the 1rst we hit snow at 1500'). The snow was extremely heavy and wet, and parts of the road were partially drifted.

~7psi seemed to do the trick. We continued up the 4211 and eventually connected onto the 53rd where it leveled off at 3500'. We made steady progress over the 53 to the large rock quarry. This was the place I had picked out where we would be camping and igloo building.

There's maybe two feet of snow at most.



Took a quick lunch break.

From there we continued on and started heading down the 42rd. I was kicking it back into 2wd within a mile.
Took a detour on the way back, and did some exploring. No snow at the Silver Star trail head (3000').

It was a fun day even though the conditions weren't the greatest. The snow although it was wet and heavy, seemed to cooperate. There were a few areas where the water created some washouts in the snow. This required a bit of off camber crawling near the cliff side, which is always a fun time.
Ryan should have a lot more pictures to add.