Roberts Creek Ski Run

Type: Backcountry or Sidecountry

If you are not a very solid skier, skilled in avalanche awareness, or not self sufficient, this is NOT the ski run for you. You are in for a great adventure or your worse nightmare depending on your abilities. This is one of my favorite ski adventures at Berthoud to date. But on the wrong day, this could be a death trap. The day we skied this, Dec 15th, 2018 we skied 100% of the run only taking our skis off once for a 20' down climb. But that section could be skied now that we have evaluated.

After ending the skinning at a rock field, we skied down and north skirting a rock field and staying slightly above the trees. When we could see down into Roberts Creek, we were cautious to stay out of the main avalanche path to our right.

This left us to ski a double fall line entrance, approximately 35-40 degree into the mouth of the creek bed. This section should not be taken lightly, as there are numerous rocks that have to be navigated. We had no bad layers in the snow, and no real potential for slab/crown to break. The sun does not shine on this at all this time of year, making the snow bottomless and awesome!

Once in the mouth of the creek bed we skied on the left side, north-facing slopes until we got down lower into the tight creek bed. The creek bed proper was fully skiable, we chose the north-facing slopes due to snow quality.

Down lower, the creek bed narrows, and the skiing get more challenging. There are lots of rocks and downed trees that could be major obstacles if your skiing is sub-par. Once the creek bed tightens down lower, there are numerous avalanche paths that drain into the creek. We chose to NOT ski any of these paths, and spent very little time below any of them. There was a mandatory 15-20' drop down low that we avoided by down climbing on the skier's right side.