We may be opening Pearl Pass by shoveling snow. The current rumor is a 15 foot deep drift 80 feet long at the summit. A friend of mine will be up there during the next week and will try to update me on the condition of the trail. If it seems doable we may attempt to open it. Besides, you need a shovel for camping any way.

Son of a ...

I am gonne be a frozen spic or spicsicle as carlton put it. Well I have a full size shovel on my tire carrier and a smaller one inside so I am ready to work.

Damnit.

Looks like this will be the placeholder for the update.

Shovels might be okay (doubtful), but if you bring one of these along, I think you will be FAR better off.

Sweet, the Google ad at the bottom of the page has a link to "Find Snow Shovels"

Darren, in case I forget. Labor Day Party at my house September 4th, 2PM.

I have a snow shovel. I live in Phoenix. yes, this defies all logic.

Wish I could come on this one.

Weirdo!!!

Oooh! I bet there'll be food, too!

I do appreciate the invite, Ian. Actually, there is a good chance I'll be out somewhere. If I happen to be around, though, I would definitely stop by, assuming my rig wouldn't get stoned!

Pearl Pass update:

I drove the CB approach on Pearl this past Saturday and told Ian I'd provide an update.

There are two drifts on the CB side just short of the summit, which was basically expected. The first one may very well be gone by the time you guys arrive. If not, shovels should make quick work of it. I fully expect the bigger second one to still be there, though I'm not sure how much of it will be left. It was between 30-40' long and probably about 4' tall on the high side. Probably a good 2' on the drop-off side. Assuming that it doesn't melt much in the next couple of weeks, I don't think it's realistic to get a crew to shovel it clear. That's a LOT of snow.

The summit sign was gone, but the posts remain. Not sure if the forest service is re-working another one or if it was a vandal incident.

Looking down the north side, I was surprised to see the final approach was all clear, at least the upper section. Looking down further, without the aid of binoculars, there only appeared to be two short drifts covering the road. I'm not sure if they are bigger than they appeared, but they didn't really look that bad. Hopefully, they'll melt off quite a bit for you guys, and I'd definitely say it would be worth it for at least one person to check out, if not your whole crew. You might be able to make the summit easily enough.

Now for the pictures of what I tried to describe:


The first drift


The first drift


The second drift and the Pearl summit


Looking back down the second drift


Looking down the north side from the summit


The first drift covering the road. I couldn't tell if that longer section just to its right was covering the road or not.


This was the only other drift that I could see that was covering the road


A wider view looking to the cloud-covered Castle Peak (14,265')

Darren, thank for the update. This is very tempting, as it looks like my driveway during our last big storm. I think 20 people might be able to clear that rather quickly (couple hours).

Thanks for the pics, much easier to see what the fuss is all about. I'm not much into shoveling, so.. If I can get my hands on some 100% green (enviro safe) ice/snow melter, is that a bad thing to use it up there? It's a material I sell to Parks and Rec depts, Hiway depts, etc. It is totally safe, non-corrosive, safe to vegetation, in fact, this is the one that works to *40 below zero ...

Oh, sorry for the pitch, I though I was back at work there for a moment..

Here are a few images from my last trip over Pearl in September 2000.

The first image shows the location of the big drift from the summit. Lots of room to park if we need not turn around.



Here's a comparison of the summit. You can see no one has made the top yet because of all the loose rocks that have covered the road surface.



It does appear someone has made it past the small drifts on the Aspen side but were stopped by what is usually a large drift just below the summit.

There's snow in AZ?

Nate.

1-Yes Nate, it snows in AZ. We have mountains over 12k here, it's not all just dirt and rocks ya' know..

2-I have a global presence in the chemical world thank you.

3-There was no "Premiere" in AZ, it's all manufactured and stored in NY, so, like the post says, bring a shovel. The freight to CO for 50# is over $40, and I don't believe UPS will deliver to a group of Xterras traveling somewhere through the Rockies anyways. They like an address

So, can you bring a bag ?

On a side note, I plan on driving up to the rock glacier on Pearl Pass on Wednesday as planned. We'll then drive up and take a look at the drift. If the drift looks clearable, we'll change the Thursday run a bit. We'll still do the Italian Creek loop, but then run Taylor and Pearl again and clear the snow. This will put us in the Crested Butte area quite a bit later so Schofield Pass will be bumped to Friday, which should only delay our arrival in Lake City by 3 hours.

We may do that anyway if we can't clear Pearl, we may drive up from the Crested Butte side until we get bored (19 miles each way to the summit) then back down to set up camp.

No. But if we go to the Denver Zoo, I've got a friend there He may have some to spare..

So Wednesday night camp location will be as planned? I am still hoping to get Thursday and Friday off.

Yup, same place.

Saw the weather report for Denver this morning. Looked like a nice collection of hale and possible floods? Or was the flooding in Nebraska- they talk so damn fast in the mornings.

Have fun!

Weather forecast is generally 40% chance of heavy rains and thunderstorms for about 10+ days ahead in local areas (Telluride/Ouray/Silverton/Durango) and there has been quite a few of heavy rains. Bring yer umbrellas and tow straps to get over muddy sections.

Well, that drift turned out to be huge. 200 feet long and a couple feet deep. 3 Jeeps had made it through downhill the night prior to our arrival, but had to be winched through (based on reports we heard).

We were unaware of the size of the drift but committed ourselves to Pearl on July 29th. Upon arrival I tried to get my Xterra through it but didn't get far. About the time I gave up, Pikachu drove his locked Xterra through the existing grooves and cut a nice swatch. We then spent a couple hours shoveling and filling the grooves with rocks from the glacier. Being warm from the sun, they melted into the track and gave us a solid surface to drive through.

An hour later 18 trucks were through stranding 4 pricks with their Jeep Cherokee and Toyota who had hassled us all day with their poor driving practices.

A big Happy Birthday to Pikachu for getting us through... the day was epic.