TR Replies
Cool route, especially moving camp each day!
Those old-growth trees would be a regular attraction if they were more accessible to the world...
Way to go your own way.
Those old-growth trees would be a regular attraction if they were more accessible to the world...
Way to go your own way.
You weren't the kid using his skis as a bookshelf during the week, were you? ;)
lojok, you wouldn't have gained much familiarity with the area this weekend. The visibility was too poor to decipher much of anything and would've made it difficult to remember much of the terrain as it all more or less looked the same (gray with snowy trees)
lojok, you wouldn't have gained much familiarity with the area this weekend. The visibility was too poor to decipher much of anything and would've made it difficult to remember much of the terrain as it all more or less looked the same (gray with snowy trees)
author=tim place link=topic=31332.msg131508#msg131508 date=1396402901]
I remember a trip with "borrowed boots", the rented beacon is new to me!
Yep, got it from the Outdoor Center at WWU. Now that I think about it, putting an Ortovox F1 in the hands of someone that had only used them a handful of times before and calling myself good to go was pretty darn stupid of them... and me.
By the time I had...
It's refreshing to read this thread. My friend and I had planned on heading to Splitfest for awhile and were stoked at the opportunity to tour the Baker area. Last week when we were watching the weather forecast and avy report we started to get a bit iffy - what if it's raining, what if avy conditions aren't something we are comfortable with, etc. On my way out of the door on Friday I texted my friend and suggested she bring her normal board "just in case" and I'm h...
author=hop link=topic=31332.msg131459#msg131459 date=1396317162]
Even though my first Arm lap many moons ago was with a rented beacon ...
I remember a trip with "borrowed boots", the rented beacon is new to me!
My desk has been very safe the last two days. ::)
Nice report, thanks. Looks like you had some good fun!
FSG, were those heli crashes with clients on board, do you know?
I've talked with some guides up in BC about heli incidents up there, and they didn't know of any with clients on board, but I did learn of one pre-season "hut preparations" trip up near Golden where the heli went down in some forest with a few guides on board (no injuries). Haven't talked with NCH folks about their fun with choppe...
FSG, were those heli crashes with clients on board, do you know?
I've talked with some guides up in BC about heli incidents up there, and they didn't know of any with clients on board, but I did learn of one pre-season "hut preparations" trip up near Golden where the heli went down in some forest with a few guides on board (no injuries). Haven't talked with NCH folks about their fun with choppe...
author=joke link=topic=31332.msg131492#msg131492 date=1396375196]
Does anyone have a picture of the crown on the safety line? I would love to see that. I've ridden down that line hundreds of times - many times in storms. I haven't ever seen it move. I'm hoping to be able to correct this thread in identifying exactly what the "safety line" is, but I could be wrong.
Hard to believe you've ridden tha...
author=joke link=topic=31332.msg131492#msg131492 date=1396375196]
Does anyone have a picture of the crown on the safety line? I would love to see that. I've ridden down that line hundreds of times - many times in storms. I haven't ever seen it move. I'm hoping to be able to correct this thread in identifying exactly what the "safety line" is, but I could be wrong.
I think Hop already corrected this thr...
The king was looking sweet Sunday and I was surprised no one skinned up the SB side and snagged it. The snow from ~ 48 hours prior (Thurs/Fri) was pretty stable on lots of north aspect high elevation inbounds but no real direct comparison available to the length and steepness of the face of the King. The top 8" or so (north aspect) was sluffing as observed in a few spots so no question the risk of sending a large sluff down the king and step down to the aforementioned 45 cm layer a real pos...
Does anyone have a picture of the crown on the safety line? I would love to see that. I've ridden down that line hundreds of times - many times in storms. I haven't ever seen it move. I'm hoping to be able to correct this thread in identifying exactly what the "safety line" is, but I could be wrong.
Last one...
And if you want more, here they are :
http://www.victormesny.com/#!recent-adventures
And if you want more, here they are :
http://www.victormesny.com/#!recent-adventures
Hop-
It was exactly the conditions I had hoped for during Splitfest and I actually wouldn't mind a little more rain during the LBS. The lift lines were short while everyone was showing the ticket buying public how to skin up cat tracks and I was having a good time poking around with some of the guys who were in town for the festival but saw fit to buy tickets. From your ranting I feel like I might be more risk tolerant than you are but I don't know if that's true...
It was exactly the conditions I had hoped for during Splitfest and I actually wouldn't mind a little more rain during the LBS. The lift lines were short while everyone was showing the ticket buying public how to skin up cat tracks and I was having a good time poking around with some of the guys who were in town for the festival but saw fit to buy tickets. From your ranting I feel like I might be more risk tolerant than you are but I don't know if that's true...
Europe invades the Eastside again. Nice going you two! It's about time we get a report from the alpine East of the crest. Thanks for posting Jake! Top dollar indeed!
Is the Frenchman going to post some photos too? Looking forward to them. Coney lake is such a scenic area.
I'm including your stunning photo of Mt. Cashmere if you don't mind. And the classic post-tour wasted photo. Too classic not to share!
Is the Frenchman going to post some photos too? Looking forward to them. Coney lake is such a scenic area.
I'm including your stunning photo of Mt. Cashmere if you don't mind. And the classic post-tour wasted photo. Too classic not to share!
Thanks for the report. Some of that sounded really fun!
Ooops, forgot....
Conditions we found: Crust everywhere, under between 1-12" of fresh, crampons essential. Snow had not formed large cohesive slabs of Sunday. Slight propagation of dry-loose slabs was frequent near ridges with 1-6" slabs, and possible to make it slide if you really hit it, but if a guy could get a slide going it would not run far at all. Deep snow has accumulated at 5000' and above. We could not find evidence of dangerous wind-slab loading despite very high w...
Conditions we found: Crust everywhere, under between 1-12" of fresh, crampons essential. Snow had not formed large cohesive slabs of Sunday. Slight propagation of dry-loose slabs was frequent near ridges with 1-6" slabs, and possible to make it slide if you really hit it, but if a guy could get a slide going it would not run far at all. Deep snow has accumulated at 5000' and above. We could not find evidence of dangerous wind-slab loading despite very high w...
author=hop link=topic=31332.msg131473#msg131473 date=1396327996]
Nope, sounds like you got it 100%!
you missed "white out visibility," and "wet slides into the road"!
we found the conditions manageable, and had fun partying in the rain.
author=freeskiguy link=topic=31332.msg131472#msg131472 date=1396327764]
Am i missing something here? Novice riders, rented avy gear, known avy hazard,go out and ski cut those ski lines, big crowds, nwac benifit, avy incidents. What?
Nope, sounds like you got it 100%!
HA!!!!!!! Damn globe trotting Free heel skiers!!
I fly out Wednesday afternoon so I will start packing Wednesday morning.
Was sad to hear you wouldn't be playing your sidehilling song.
I fly out Wednesday afternoon so I will start packing Wednesday morning.
Was sad to hear you wouldn't be playing your sidehilling song.
author=Kyle Miller link=topic=31332.msg131465#msg131465 date=1396321695]
I thought I did a good good on Friday telling everyone to expect avalanches and ski cut everything before they rode it.
BUSY BUSY weekend.
I'm sure they'd listen to you as you're the PNW-based hero of Global Splitboarding. I, however, am just a bitter and jaded freeheel skier. Just ask your team manager! ;)
BTW,...
I thought I did a good good on Friday telling everyone to expect avalanches and ski cut everything before they rode it.
BUSY BUSY weekend.
BUSY BUSY weekend.
I didn't know about the Friday thing so that's good that it happened. I would have liked to see something on Saturday too but I probably wouldn't have attended that either. The zoo factor was high this weekend - Swift looked like an inbounds area today!
Even though my first Arm lap many moons ago was with a rented beacon, I now agree 100% on not renting avy gear.
While on the skintrack today I told some gearless kids hiking up from t...
Even though my first Arm lap many moons ago was with a rented beacon, I now agree 100% on not renting avy gear.
While on the skintrack today I told some gearless kids hiking up from t...
Not sure if you attended, but there was an NWAC briefing on Friday night. There was additional backcountry information brief followed right afterwards. They held a newbie clinic on Saturday. As far as the Blueberry Chutes incident, it was mentioned to avoid that aspect during the NWAC briefing. We had a resort staff member warns my group about that particular area on that cat track. From my perspective, it appeared majority of the splitfest attendees were in the Swift Creek area on both Sat and...
It was not a good weekend to ride big, exposed lines. I saw the crowns for both the slide you mentioned in the Blueberry area as well as the one on the Arm on my way out yesterday when the clouds parted.
There was an NWAC forecast discussion session on Fri. evening that I did not attend. I felt like I had a good grip on the conditions and I felt very comfortable exploring with the folks I toured with throughout the weekend. On the whole, I felt like most folks were making conservative...
There was an NWAC forecast discussion session on Fri. evening that I did not attend. I felt like I had a good grip on the conditions and I felt very comfortable exploring with the folks I toured with throughout the weekend. On the whole, I felt like most folks were making conservative...
I know this event was a benefit for NWAC and SAR and so forth but I would be much more in favor of Splitfest if there was some sort of active bc safety/protocol/awareness component during the actual event, say perhaps by reading the avy report during the raffle or via the demo fleet where maybe you could only demo if you knew the current avy report or something. There seemed to be a whole lot of dumb going on because it was Splitfest weekend. Same sort of thing happens during LBS too but at le...
It'd be interesting to see someone drop a couple of those if they could get on the ridge. It's nice that you can see the whole basin from the ridge so you'd really know if there was anyone below.
Model post! Great example of decision making in the field and travel plan adjustments. I was eyeing the virgin King on Sunday, but made the conscious decision to leave the splitboard at home just to avoid temptation.
thanks for writing this up! i was quite glad that you & rory got so many great photos since my camera unfortunately drowned in my backpack during our rainy recon mission a few weeks ago.
it really was a blast going on this adventure with you guys! nice work on the route planning... it's one thing to get from point a to boint b safely in the mountains, but it's a whole different level when this process is repeated numerous times across a span of days in order to allow a...
it really was a blast going on this adventure with you guys! nice work on the route planning... it's one thing to get from point a to boint b safely in the mountains, but it's a whole different level when this process is repeated numerous times across a span of days in order to allow a...
Love the stats, Charlie - thanks ;- )
Thanks, guys, for chiming in - it's nice to keep the convo going here on TAY. We played it quite safe, stayed on West aspect and mostly in trees. The pow was more PNW-style than champagne-style but hey, I'll take it.
Thanks, guys, for chiming in - it's nice to keep the convo going here on TAY. We played it quite safe, stayed on West aspect and mostly in trees. The pow was more PNW-style than champagne-style but hey, I'll take it.
I'd wondered about trip-report scarcity too, so I plotted the numbers. This year is lower than the recent past, but not a lot. March 2014 isn't over; more TRs will appear.
Added the bonus plot to illustrate the point that TAY's not chattier than past years. 5 replies/TR is quite stable.
Added the bonus plot to illustrate the point that TAY's not chattier than past years. 5 replies/TR is quite stable.
1st picture classic . I 've seen that happen umpteenth times at that exact same spot !
Its not completely that they are cagey about stashes, which for anything out of the ordinary they are, but its also due to the potential backlash they get from the community for hitting a line now after this season's odd snowpack. Monday morning QB is all too easy and folk generally don't want that hassle. Conditions over the weekend were certainly great both days, especially higher up in the right places of course.
author=r1de link=topic=31325.msg131428#msg131428 date=1396280382]
Actually that looks pretty good! Is that Dave again?
Nope, it was Pavel & Pavel ( 8) 8) )
My impression is that people are generally quite gun shy this year. I certainly have a gut reluctance to exposure based on distrust of the snowpack at deep levels. There are less trip reports than any season since I joined TAY. Maybe people are just being cagey about their stashes but I suspect that uncertainty is widespread in the PNW.
author=flowing alpy link=topic=31299.msg131422#msg131422 date=1396269568]
nice tr kyle, enjoy n. yurp.
you represent the young of the pnw well!
bF
Wow, thanks for this.
It's a weird world I live in these days.
I blame it on the water.
Actually that looks pretty good! Is that Dave again?
nice tr kyle, enjoy n. yurp.
you represent the young of the pnw well!
bF
you represent the young of the pnw well!
bF
Yes Aaron, that picture was taken on the skin up to windy knob. Indeed a good run, the top pitch was a bit touchy.
Charlie, I see what you're talking about. It actually started a little higher up, closer to to that basalt out cropping.
Charlie, I see what you're talking about. It actually started a little higher up, closer to to that basalt out cropping.
My friend and I were up there and we tried to warn those guys that they may not want to go up there and mess with that steeper stuff as you approach the Castle itself, because it might unzip. We had noticed that the snow was slabby and reactive especially on rollovers and ridges. One of the group stayed down on the saddle which was a wise move. We later met up with them and I guess one of them went for an unwanted ride and was a bit freaked out. I am just happy no one was...
Very much appreciate your report, thanks!
I saw several point-source slides on steep E-SE aspects at the head of Paradise Valley above 4th Crossing today. A couple ran several hundred vf and entrained enough snow to be dangerous. The west face of Mazama Ridge was heavy 12-18" storm slab above lower density snow, but no instability noted on the moderate slopes we stuck to. Ski penetration highly variable from almost nothing to way too much. Pole penetration full length reverse...
I saw several point-source slides on steep E-SE aspects at the head of Paradise Valley above 4th Crossing today. A couple ran several hundred vf and entrained enough snow to be dangerous. The west face of Mazama Ridge was heavy 12-18" storm slab above lower density snow, but no instability noted on the moderate slopes we stuck to. Ski penetration highly variable from almost nothing to way too much. Pole penetration full length reverse...
Is this the wet slide that pulled out?
Nutrition before drop
https://www.flickr.com/photos/koelle/13524036355/in/set-72157642828454544
author=dkoelle link=topic=31253.msg131073#msg131073 date=1395668184">
There were one set of nice tracks we more or less followed.
Thanks dkoelle! Those were my tracks from the day before! I skied from Camp Muir to the Bridge solo on Sat. 3-22. What a great day too! The conditions were incredible on 3-22. All nice powder up high, and the sun was out. There was only one set of faint, fading tracks that I saw on my way down on 3-22...
Taken from Windy Knob I presume. That's one of the nicest runs in the Blewett area.
Awesome looking trip, thanks for posting.