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Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

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Anthonyshopguy
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby Anthonyshopguy » Sun Jan 24, 2021 5:57 am

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:o :jump: Grand Mesa is getting good. Hit it the last three days. Two good sessions by the park and ride. And talked Todd into a late afternoon session at Kite lake. Conditions were perfect. 12 to 14 mph winds with about 1.5" of fast powder on the ice. I cleared a 3/4mile wide lake with 5 or 6 giant hops :jump: We ended up with high 5 and huge grins great day! :D
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Sojourner
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby Sojourner » Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:09 pm

Those are great pictures. Tons of great National Forest Service lands to enjoy there. You're a lucky man to have the mesa close by.

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Sojourner
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby Sojourner » Wed Jan 27, 2021 1:48 am

A dozen kiters from the Front Range, Western Slope and Summit County have been in touch this week, and we're all seeing non-legal locations being promoted by bombastic influencers on facebook.

Pioneering kiters have been snowkiting in CO since the late 90s, back in the wipka days. Full feature-length snowkite DVD movies have been made within the state. Many kiters have moved here recently and don't know what efforts have been made through the years. Which leads to the current situation: a surge of reckless facebook information recently is likely to screw up everything that has been understood by veteran kiters for 20 years. Numerous folks worked their tails off in political meetings to open up Lake Dillon for kiting.

There's a guy that's been using Facebook FOMO methods to try to get himself attention and says he provides lessons and expert supervision, rents gear etc. He isn't authorized to to use these reservoirs (nor does he have the required permits and insurance). The legal penalty and fines for guiding without a license is severe. He's posted locations that are illegal to sailboard (ice or water), yet is recruiting people to come kite at these illegal locations. We're getting in touch with the licensed instructors in CO and utilize the legal process to stop illegal guiding that harms the sport.

The CO facebook page has a lot of discredited info getting passed back and forth. If you're using the internet to rally groups of people to snowkite at the places provided for ice fishing then you're ignorant and may cause all the denver reservoirs to be banned with ticketed enforcement. Lake Dillon measures it's annual snowfall in FEET. Other valley spots get inches. Dillon offers a much better experience than a few inches of wind-jacked snow on top of rock hard ice.

A general CO rule of thumb is that if you can ride a snowmobile in that location then you can snowkite there. Otherwise...

You'll notice there's a lot of obvious other locations that weren't talked about previously and it's for a good reason- they may be marginal in consistency. If you think you're on to a new spot, you're definitely not. There are places with a few inches of snow on ice, but the official regulations are written to only provide sanctioned public use for ice fishing. These spots have rules against wind-powered sports!

Here it is on the facebook page from 2015, naming the areas that are known to be OK to snowkite.
areas and are not recommended for beginner/intermediate kiters. Ride at your own risk and dog help you if you cause one of these spots to be shut down to kiteboarding because the locals experts will unleash their wrath on you.

Riding snow:
There are many amazing snowkite spots around Colorado. The most popular spot is at Dillon Reservoir in Summit County, 70 miles west of Denver. Anton R at coloradokiteforce can help with info, gear and lessons. This is a park-and-ride spot with access at both north and south ends. Green Mountain, and Lake Granby are other lake kiting options in northern Colorado. If you are willing to hike/skin/snowshoe and are an expert kiter you can ride at Loveland Pass... If you want open up many more possibilities you need to get a snowmobile because you can go long distances and get to spots with terrain above tree line (10-12,000 feet elevation).

If you are new to the sport take a damn lesson before you hurt yourself or others, trash your expensive gear or get us banned from our limited riding spots.

Feel free to ask any other questions that haven't been answered here and I can update this post. -James Brown

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Sojourner
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby Sojourner » Wed Jan 27, 2021 1:54 am

Been seeing lots of misinformation out there about kiting in CO over the past few weeks. Folks are coming to this thread from FB and are mining it for frange info but are only seeing west slope stuff because the thread was started a long way from the suburbs. If you need great park-n-ride snowkiting in CO...

Lake Dillon is the perfect established kiter gathering spot and with it's mountain snowpack, a great vibe, and friendly folks, it's definitely a world-class destination. The south end is even fondly known as "The Sanitarium", in-part, because the smooth prevailing winds and snow was so much more reliable and sane than many other seemingly obvious reservoirs that get constantly wind-hammered and bare. Those areas were tried early on and just weren't reliable plus had access issues. The snow is deepest at Dillon and you can ski 4 resorts in 15 minutes if the wind doesn't blow or hang out at the great restaurants and breweries.

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rickythecat
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby rickythecat » Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:13 am

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Sojourner. "Lake Dillon has 'snow measured in feet' and steady winds". You obviously have not been to Summit County in a while. :wink:
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Sojourner
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby Sojourner » Wed Jan 27, 2021 5:21 pm

No doubt! South Padre is the best kiting in CO right now :lol:

Avg from Breck town wx station. A bit less on the N end but the number is so big it reads better in FEET :o
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nate76
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby nate76 » Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:24 am

Update on Hoosier: it needs some work...

Tried my luck up there over the weekend conditions were actually worse than they were in November. Ridgelines are scoured, and snow covered areas are a mix of really icy crust with pockets of blown-in powder.

The spot is going to need a nice lightwind dump and/or some sticky spring snow before it's worth going up there again, IMHO.

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solkiter
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby solkiter » Sun Feb 14, 2021 4:25 pm

In Fairfield now if u can make it??

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mmclimbhigh
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby mmclimbhigh » Mon Feb 15, 2021 3:47 pm

El Norte finally returned! 13+ miles of boot deep pow at Crystal yesterday. Perfecto conditions for the 13m/14m
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soplo
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Re: Kite-o-rado Snowkite Conditions

Postby soplo » Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:58 pm

Nice! I must've been looking at a totally different forecast all week (and I still don't see it in the history) but glad you caught it and got out there. I took advantage of a gusty day yesterday to see if a wing feels safer than a kite. It does. First day putting miles in:

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