Bootpackers tame Aspen avalanche danger, one step at a time
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ASPEN, Colo. — A volley of avalanche bombs thundered from the slopes at Aspen Highlands ski area.
It was days before the mountain opened to skiers, and dozens of bootpackers waited for their work assignment at the mid-mountain ski patrol hut. The motley crew of ski bums and exercise fanatics march up and down the ski area’s steepest slopes in exchange for a discounted season pass.
Veteran bootpacker Paul Tefft, 63, wrapped duct tape around his pant cuffs to keep snow out. It’s one of the few tips he’s learned after 20 seasons of bootpacking that makes the work a little less bad.
While the ritual sounds like a forced-labor assignment at an alpine gulag, Tefft is one of roughly 100 workers who volunteer to prep the mountain before it opens to the public.
Bootpackers have played a crucial role at Highlands for the past 20 years tromping through deep snow to reduce avalanche risk one step at a time.
“Highland Bowl would not be what it is without [bootpacking]...We probably wouldn't be able to open some of that terrain in certain years at all,” said assistant ski patrol director, Pat Harris.
The ski area, known for its variety of hair-raising expert terrain, is home to more than 200 avalanche paths. But despite the availability of high-tech tools, including explosives, ski patrollers have yet to find a way to control slides at Highlands that works as well as bootpacking.
Colorado suffers from a notoriously weak snowpack — caused by inconsistent snowfall, high winds and cold temperatures. Those factors, combined with steep terrain, create a hornets' nest of hazards ski patrollers must navigate before opening slopes to the public.
Every snowfall forms a new layer in the snowpack. But new snow sometimes fails to bond with existing layers. Each additional storm adds stress on the snowpack, which can fracture and slide with the right trigger.
Bootpacking reduces avalanche hazard by disturbing individual snow layers and compacting snow.
”This is our most challenging time of the year for sure,” said Dan Goddard, snow safety director, on December 9. "Once we can start getting skiers on it, [we can] utilize them to do a lot of the work for us.”
At ski areas in Utah and the Pacific Northwest, ski patrollers can rely more heavily on explosives to pre-emptively trigger avalanches, then wait for snow to fill in areas that slid. But that technique doesn’t work as well in Colorado, where ski areas receive less snowfall.
“If we were to go up there and wait for the Highland Bowl to get…to its tipping point, and then we go put the golden BB up there and we avalanche the whole thing, there's a strong likelihood that we won't get ski that all season because we get 250 inches of snow a year,” said Goddard.
A 2008 paper written by Aspen Highlands ski patroller Peter Carvelli for the International Snow Science Workshop shows a decrease in avalanche events in known slide paths at Aspen Highlands after ski patrollers implemented bootpacking.
Carvelli argues that although no avalanche mitigation method can be 100 percent effective, data show that bootpacking can reduce risk.
Bootpacking often begins in late-October, when snow reaches 15 to 20 inches, but snow levels didn’t reach that point until December 1 this year. Bootpacking typically lasts six to eight weeks. Roughly 6,500 man-hours are required to complete bootpacking at the resort per season.
Copper Mountain, Silverton Mountain and Telluride Ski Resort also conduct bootpacking, but Goddard said the program at Highlands is the most extensive, covering terrain from the base of the resort all the way to the summit of Highland Peak.
“Wall to wall or not at all,” is the team’s mantra, said Goddard.
Until this year, bootpackers worked as volunteers, earning credit towards a ski pass but no pay. This year, bootpackers earn $14.81 per hour — Colorado’s minimum wage — in addition to credit towards a ski pass. Bootpackers who work 15 or more days are eligible to earn a premier pass, valued at $3,800, to ski at any of the four Aspen mountains.
Although neither of the two bootpackers Aspen Skiing Company allowed Rocky Mountain PBS to speak with cited wages or pass discounts as their primary motivation for participating, Harris said that the discount is a draw for many workers.
“This is a volunteer thing, but it's one that we think that you should be paid for,” said Geoff Buchheister, chief executive officer of Aspen Skiing company. Buchheister, in his third year as CEO, said he’s yet to take part in the bootpacking program, but plans to this year.
Before sending bootpackers into avalanche terrain, ski patrollers analyze the snowpack and use preventative measures, like explosives, to lower the risk, said Goddard.
But the work is not without danger.
“I’ve seen small slides,” said bootpacker Peter Anzalone.
“Certain areas where your boot packing, being caught in a slide is top of mind, and in those zones where it's higher risk, you're roped into the harness.”
Ski patrol requires that all workers wear an avalanche beacon. On higher risk slopes, bootpackers descend a fixed rope using a self-belay device.
Goddard said he was not aware of any avalanche injuries or deaths involving a bootpacker at Highlands.
As the morning sun breached a wall of clouds, Anzalone returned from the group’s first mission of the day, skiing a zig-zag pattern down Highland bowl to compact recent snow.
“Every direction you turn, there is wind in your face, just sandblasting your cheekbones,” said Anzalone, as he recounted the morning climb to Highland Peak, elevation 12,392 feet, with an ear to ear grin.
He first skied Highland bowl in April 1996, six years after moving to the valley.
“I don't like using that word iconic. It's so overused. But it truly is an iconic piece of terrain,” he said.
Anzalone started bootpacking three years ago after selling his software business.
“It's a giant fitness booster. If you put in 10, 12, 15, days, you come out of it super fit. That's a great thing to start your ski season with,” he said. “Something that I didn't realize that I would really cherish is the connection to the patrol …seeing all the work that they perform to get this place open.”
Although the number of bootpackers dropped during the pandemic, roughly 180 people applied this season. Goddard doesn’t worry about the future of the program.
“I think we just have to breed the culture. I think there's still enough people that understand what it takes to operate this ski area, and I hope that we can pass that on to the future of the program, because we haven't found — in our climate, in our environment, in our topography — an alternative for it.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.