TR Replies
Beauty of a video! Castle Rock was sorta a big part of my life way back when. Turns out my future wife and I both were on the summit separately in the 70's. The day after you guys were tearing it up, my daughter and her new husband went there for their first backcountry trip! Very small and beautiful world. Hope to see you again soon.
Brian
Brian
nice day skiing indeed.
We did have some slidey slidey activity on West Aspect at 6500ft. Wind loaded storm snow. Made a small crown a few inches deep and maybe 100ft wide. Sent the pigeons flying in all directions!
Only a littly, but could have been nasty on a more substantial fall line. Plenty of energy and she wanted to run!
We did have some slidey slidey activity on West Aspect at 6500ft. Wind loaded storm snow. Made a small crown a few inches deep and maybe 100ft wide. Sent the pigeons flying in all directions!
Only a littly, but could have been nasty on a more substantial fall line. Plenty of energy and she wanted to run!
author=sneaky_steve link=topic=33099.msg137683#msg137683 date=1419095566]
After I wrote my reply I was already thinking I didn't give enough detail.
We did not see any tracks leading up the chute. Our hasty pit showed about a 50cm slab on top of the rain crust. Our ECT results produced an ECT22 with gross/jaged (not clean) propagation across the column. Definitely a Q2-3. After that result we pulled the column off of the rain crust and examine...
author=r1de link=topic=33099.msg137681#msg137681 date=1419056326]
sneaky_steve: thank you very much for posting that followup and especially for the report on the slides. Do you have any more details about it? Dry slough, or storm/wind slab from last night's new? What was the total snow depth? I'd like to confirm (or prove wrong!) my suspicion that the instabilities you saw were new storm snow and not a 40+cm slab releasing on that rain crust. I...
sneaky_steve: thank you very much for posting that followup and especially for the report on the slides. Do you have any more details about it? Dry slough, or storm/wind slab from last night's new? What was the total snow depth? I'd like to confirm (or prove wrong!) my suspicion that the instabilities you saw were new storm snow and not a 40+cm slab releasing on that rain crust. I'm also curious to know if you could see our tracks/bootpack into the ea...
Well there is only room for two people to make fresh turns in the canyon and being a gentlemen, if I stuck around I would have had to let them go first (;
author=Skier of the Hood link=topic=33103.msg137673#msg137673 date=1419047972]
Ran into a group of gals transitioning under the palmer lift station and considered striking a conversation but then I remembered that the canyon below is fairly skinny. The pow drew my attention away and we went to the base lodge to eat lunch.
Wow the pow drew your attention away from a group of gals!!? I have yet to see pow that good, maybe someday.
Sunshine isn't all it's cracked up to be :( Glad you are getting good snow down there.
Photo of slide mentioned above; observed what appeared to be another likely patrol cut line on pan face.
Very similar experience for us today. We dug a hasty pit about 100 feet above where the person in your first photo was. Found the rain crust at 50cm. Decided not to ride the chutes (including the two to the right of the one you pictured). Another group, a young teenage snowboarder and skier were heading for the ridge and had talked about riding the chutes. We recommended a different route of descent, but they continued on. On our next lap from the main silver basin saddle, we observed slide debr...
Andy somehow we missed you again today (19) . Mindy Nichols and I were practicing our powder turns in Edith basin while Ed Strauss skied circles around u son his Xc gear . A very good day to be there. Coverage improving . 12" of powder with 6" ski pen. light winds with some nice sunbreaks. Hope to be back tomorrow till the weather chases us out.
author=Jason4 link=topic=33098.msg137663#msg137663 date=1419031829]
I like your future reporting technique, filing a TR for Dec 21 on Dec 19!
Ha, yeah, knowing the date is really hard for me right now apparently. Updated!
author=ron j link=topic=33096.msg137656#msg137656 date=1419008381]
Thanks, Andy.
Looks like you'll need to go back out today and check what fell last night. ;)
Pretty nice today (19th), with 8 inches of new and some sunbreaks providiing spectacular views of the mountain.
I like your future reporting technique, filing a TR for Dec 21 on Dec 19!
Thanks, Andy.
Looks like you'll need to go back out today and check what fell last night. ;)
Looks like you'll need to go back out today and check what fell last night. ;)
:-) Thanks for all the beta! And LOL! No clue how I came up with Nisqually Gate!
Were they kind enough to let you park in the lot? Beware, they are tow happy.
I believe their special use permit states that they cannot trespass non-pass / ticket holders if they are not actively operating. Likely gray area, as they did spin chairs this season. But the current website posting says "We will open when..."
Looks fun.
I believe their special use permit states that they cannot trespass non-pass / ticket holders if they are not actively operating. Likely gray area, as they did spin chairs this season. But the current website posting says "We will open when..."
Looks fun.
Nice work, such a beautiful line!
You would be correct running clouds pretty much right at blowdown pass.
Long way up the road 15km to the lake sled travel pretty quick. From there 1000ft runs in the alpine.
Long way up the road 15km to the lake sled travel pretty quick. From there 1000ft runs in the alpine.
Looks like the same trip, the tags have more info, it is off Blowdown FSR...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/patmulrooney/sets/72157649818669605
https://www.flickr.com/photos/patmulrooney/sets/72157649818669605
Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle
looks wintery! where on the duffey was that?
nice.. I am on the wrong side of the mountains!
I was up there a few weeks back and the icy road was the sketchy part... Hopefully get back up there on Sat ... Thanks for the beta and pics!
Thanks guys, I appreciate your replies. Wishing you (and myself) some significant snow dump.
Good on you! As long as there are observations to be made - to the mountains we must go! (By whatever means)
Awesome writeup man- what a day.
A few solid ones from Sat.. http://youtu.be/xHRhX717frQ
A few solid ones from Sat.. http://youtu.be/xHRhX717frQ
author=runningclouds link=topic=33072.msg137594#msg137594 date=1418780261]
Nice area! Is the trailhead accessible all year round?
Very strong parties can access this area, even when the Paradise Road is closed, with a dawn start via the Wonderland Trail west from Longmire, then north along upper Rampart Ridge. It's about five miles from Longmire to Mildred Point, where one finally breaks out of the trees. There are a couple s...
Awesome! van trump is such a beautiful place to ski in - glad you found some nice snow too.
Yes, it's the Comet Falls TH about 4 miles past the Nisqually gate.
I think we lucked out a lot with our location, which was set ahead of watching any weather forecasts. Saturday night into Sunday morning saw a big drop in the humidity, along with fairly cold temps... and little wind (I don't recall feeling any overnight, despite a small uptick at the ski area). Think those items all helped to keep the few inches there and very light.
There is skiing to be had out there! I know too many people that have stayed at home because they think it is crappy. High alpine last weekend was damn good! Way to get after it!
Tetons looking good via your map!!!
But washington is still rad!
But washington is still rad!
Nice area! Is the trailhead accessible all year round?
author=ErikT link=topic=33071.msg137583#msg137583 date=1418755091]
Are you going to do a weighted average of "fun factors" by hours of vert; or just per day?
Not to thread jack but...
I prefer to do all this ski counting (and rating now, ha) by day. Otherwise it gets too complicated, and I don't always remember or care to turn the GPS tracks on. For it to count as a day, at least one of two conditions must be m...
The knee will heal- feel like an idiot for not wearing pads- it was so windy on the ridge I didn't feel like unzipping my pants to put them on. Not surprised to read the note about a slide on Pan Point from wind slab. This was on my mind. Makes for another year with a bad , unstable base- assuming we ever get snow to cover it. Heard today that we are at 6% of normal snowpack!
Haha nice Matt, that is probably a better way to track it than straight vert. Are you going to do a weighted average of "fun factors" by hours of vert; or just per day?
I think I've signed myself up for more dawn patrols and lapping of volcanos in spring than I might normally have done. It's all better than working, though!
I think I've signed myself up for more dawn patrols and lapping of volcanos in spring than I might normally have done. It's all better than working, though!
I like your 2014/15 season goal tracking page. I have something similar, and now I'll add assigning a "type of fun value" to each day. Can I get the season average <1.5?!
coverage was quite bleak at White Salmon on the drive up. There was more than enough to comfortably skin and ski the road to AP. Dropping into the valley and climbing back out towards the parking lot didn't look worth it though... plenty of rocks poking out down there still...
Thanks for the pictures - coverage looks better than I would have expected!
Looks great, man!
Love the skins-loincloth.
Love the skins-loincloth.
You're certainly right about the width of Whistler Bowl. If his width measurements are off by more than 100 percent, it doesn't make me feel real good about the other measurements. I noticed in the pictures people did seem to be much taller than the crown in some spots. Since this was essentially an inbounds avalanche, I'm surprised that they would overstate it's size. I would have thought the opposite. Whatever...I'm glad the snow you skied didn't slide. ...
author=avajane link=topic=33049.msg137567#msg137567 date=1418704058]
It said the crown was 160 cm to 210 cm and was 70 meters wide.
Yes I did see the report on Wayne's blog. So I was prepared to see this huge crown and it was a bit of a let down. The height of the crown was quite variable. If the report writer meant 160 was the lowest and 210 the highest then I definitely disagree. The crown below the lift was not more than 50 cm....
Good beta, thanks for sharing the reminder(s).
I do think this was an interesting and valid reaction....
I do think this was an interesting and valid reaction....
author=Norseman link=topic=33069.msg137568#msg137568 date=1418707421]
Surprised you skied the wind drift shortly after triggering one...
The Avy rating went from High to Considerable to Moderate very fast. My thought at the time was they figured everything had already ran. But how could you think that - after watching a slope go natural the day after dynamite didn't do anything to it! I wonder if the rest of the corridor was a Moderate rating for the weekend, or if it was just the terrain adjacent to WB.
Nice pics as usual Martin! We should go for a tour sometime!
I was in the Circle Glacier area off of Blackcomb on Sunday. We got some decent turns in but there was a lot of wind affected stuff. I figured we wanted to get as high as possible for decent snow and didn't think musical bumps would be high enough, but it looks like I was wrong! We re-entered the resort via Bodybag and saw that avy off of Disease Ridge up close. It was huge. Wayne Fla...
I was in the Circle Glacier area off of Blackcomb on Sunday. We got some decent turns in but there was a lot of wind affected stuff. I figured we wanted to get as high as possible for decent snow and didn't think musical bumps would be high enough, but it looks like I was wrong! We re-entered the resort via Bodybag and saw that avy off of Disease Ridge up close. It was huge. Wayne Fla...
Man - Those are some stiff looking flagstone pavers! You could make a nice winter only patio from them.