Skied the Angel of Shavano today. CR 250 and 252 are clear of snow all the way to the Blanks Cabin trailhead. A large drift just past Placer Creek is melted enough that you can skirt by it. The Colorado Trail is completely dry. The Shavano trail is its normal rocky, miserable self up to about 10,400 then intermittent snow. At 10,700 the snow became continuous and I put on skins for the climb up to the base of the Angel.
There is stable, continuous snow from the base of the Angel all the way up to the Esprit Point / Shavano saddle at 13,500 feet. Going up in the morning the body of the Angel was rock-hard ice. Crampons are definitely recommended. Above the Angel the snow is windblown but skiable. Dropped in from the saddle at 10:00 a.m. and by then the Angel had turned to perfect corn snow, making for some fun turns all the way back to tree line.
Once the trees got too tight to ski, I put skins back on for flotation through the snow in the trees which by mid-day was wet and slushy.
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