Copeland Mountain Conditions

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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bdloftin77
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Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by bdloftin77 »

An old co-worker's wanting to do Copeland Mtn via Wild Basin/Ouzel Lake soon. Anyone have beta on snow depth/conditions in that area?
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12ersRule
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Re: Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by 12ersRule »

The only thing I've heard is from the 'Fort Collins Trail Runners' group on Facebook, someone said that they'd recommend snowshoes at around 9500ft. That was from 6 days ago.

I did it in one July many many years ago from Ouzel Lake and was pretty surprised how much snow was on the north slopes. It was fun and avoidable though.
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cougar
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Re: Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by cougar »

I did it in late May of the notable dry year of 2012 and there was a ton of snow most of the way. See my TR. The bushwhacking is awful with snow. Also be aware of the current roadwork closure at wild basin.
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ekalina
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Re: Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by ekalina »

Agreed with cougar that the bushwhacking is pretty significant. I've only done it in the summer, but I remember a large amount of deadfall that would be difficult to negotiate if you had to put the snowshoes on. I also encountered one or two fairly steep areas in the forest, but maybe that could have been avoided with better routefinding.

Anyway, to get at your question, the NOAA snow analysis is showing between 50–75 inches of snow in the gridbox that covers the area between the lake and the open talus slope.

https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/interactive ... &js=1&uc=0
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bdloftin77
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Re: Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by bdloftin77 »

Thanks! Looks like we’re heading up tomorrow. I’m bringing snow gear and will be mentally prepared for the bushwhacking section. I’ll post a conditions report.
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ekalina
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Re: Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by ekalina »

How is it up there?
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bdloftin77
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Re: Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by bdloftin77 »

We made it! It was fairly dry from the trail head to the Ouzel Lake/Bluebird Lake junction, with only a few solid snow crossings. From there to Ouzel Lake was mostly covered with fairly solid deep snow. From there to the summit was almost all on snow (a few rocky patches that one could choose to take). In the trees, the snow was fairly solid and we only had occasional post-holing. Made the bushwhack really easy. Above treeline the snow varied between fairly firm (sinking only a couple inches) to relatively soft (sinking at least a foot with each step). I tried putting on snowshoes for the softer areas, but it didn’t really help too much. Coming back down to the lake, the snow was an even softer mashed potato consistency. We were only able to glissade about half of the slope because plunge stepping ended up being faster for a lot of it. Bluebird skies, warm temperatures, and no wind made the long day rather pleasant. Highly recommend boots,
gaiters, micro spikes, and an ice axe.
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ekalina
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Re: Copeland Mountain Conditions

Post by ekalina »

Nice. Way to push through all of the snow. I remember the view from the summit of Copeland being really fantastic, even though it was smoky that day.
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