Top of Monarch Pass in January
Up the Old Monarch Pass Road. Notice the blue sky?--not a cloud all day.
Lacking snow on the top of the Divide, but who cares--notice the blue sky?
Top of the pass
We decide to do a pit to check snow conditions. Here one can see a pretty thick depth of consolidated snow on ice grains.
There's those ball bearings that make Colorado backcountry dangerous.
We descend moderate slopes. Did I mention the cloudless skies?
