The godfather of Colorado backcountry touring and ski mountaineering, Lou Dawson, has returned with the second edition of Light Tours of Colorado. “Focusing on the mellow side of ski touring”, Lou does a great public service by combining copious new routes with the inspiration for us to discover even more. What are light tours? Dawson defines these as “routes with enough pitch for making turns, but generally of low enough angle to obviate most avalanche danger.” Many thanks to Lou for giving us the low-angle concept and the vision to adjust our expectations to pursue easier and safer tours.
Light Tours of Colorado comes in Beacon’s portable and graphical format that is easily carried in your pack.
Light Tours of Colorado is published by Beacon Guidebooks. Beacon’s portable spiral bound books have a familiar feel, and consistently and graphically present terrain beta across a series of diverse backcountry ski guide books. In particular, Beacon’s adherence to describing terrain using Parks Canada’s Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES) is both a useful tool and also at the core of this book describing low-angle backcountry skiing. ATES divides the described ski terrain into three categories of avalanche exposure complexity: Simple (ATES 1), Challenging (ATES 2), and Complex (ATES 3). Each category is colored coded by Beacon with ATES 1 being green, ATES 2 blue, and ATES 3 black. This is a planning tool to identify avalanche terrain and does not translate to ski area difficulty. The majority of the ski terrain described in Light Tours of Colorado rates as ATES 1 Simple. This type of terrain is lower angle and primarily forested terrain with many options to reduce or eliminate exposure to avalanche hazards.
Lou Dawson presents many local options for the Front Range backcountry tourer. Selected light tours and resort uphilling range from Hoosier Pass and Bald Mountain in the south, to Butler Gulch and Caribou in the central range, to Hidden Valley and Montgomery Pass in the north. This is just the tip of the iceberg of Front Range light tour potential, and Dawson’s guide serves as an inspiration to go out and explore more low angle terrain. What similar aspects and elevations have this potential? Our collective focus is often on avalanche terrain, and we may be ignoring all of the sustainable, low-angle skiing in between.
The majority of the ski terrain described in Light Tours of Colorado rates as ATES 1 Simple. This type of terrain is lower angle and primarily forested terrain with many options to reduce or eliminate exposure to avalanche hazards.
The book is not limited to the Front Range, and Dawson presents a sampling of opportunity throughout the great ranges of Colorado. One benefit of this book is to use it as a guide for breaking up a long-distance drive across Colorado in the winter. Headed to Crested Butte or Telluride? How about a stop at Monarch for a quick tour up the old Monarch Pass road, and then back into the car for the rest of the drive? Similar to the inspiration to seek new low-angle terrain on the Front Range, this book presents a different way to look at enjoying your journey on the way to your Colorado destination.
Want to get out for some light tours? Yes you do. Get your copy of Light Tours of Colorado at the leading backcountry ski shops on the Front Range, or order directly from Beacon’s website. Do you want to access this on your mobile phone? Download the Rakkup app and purchase the digital version within Rakkup’s library.