January 29, 2005, Paradise

Slim W and I couldn't find any dogs to entertain ourselves with in the parking lot this trip so we started climbing out of the Paradise lot at the early hour of 9:55.

We toured up to Alta Vista and decided to put YO in YOYO and picked out a slope just west of AVista.  We dug a pit here at 5840' on a SSE aspect, 30 degree pitch.  22" total accumulation, 1.5" fresh mank a 0.5" rock hard crust then 20" of consolidated cinderblock containing a couple of rotten faceted layers.  The first 2" of faceted was 9" down, the second 22" down on the ground.  Compression test yielded absolutely no movement through thirty strikes.  Began to insert the shovel behind the column for a shear test when the block broke free from the ground.  Climax slide hazard?  We judged this to be doubtful given the density and support in the slab...but I welcome coments on this.

Skied a run, then proceded up to Glacier Vista and on to the base of Panorama Point where we decided that the weather was whiting out to the point that we wanted to stay low.

Skied back down to Alta Vista on a couple inches of fresh, but in less than ideal visibility.  Boot packed up the west flank of Alta Vista and skied down the east side into Edith Creek basin.  The snow, a couple inches of mank on a carvable crust, was pretty nice and easy to ski given the steepness and better light.  So we competeted a true YOYO trip with two boot pack climbs back up the the east face of AVista and some very enjoyable turns.

All said it was a good day given the fact there's "no snow" out there.