TR Replies
Nice photo looking North! Looks like fun, much better han the office!
Nice pics, John. You enjoyed our track from Grand Junction to near the 1st switchback in the Radio Mtn cat track. We skied that to the radio towers(inactive?) and their nice views. We've got a Tuesday thing going until I undergo an ankle replacement(!) procedure in April. Feel invited if you don't mind a couple of dogs.
yeah, we definitely followed a single persons track out. It gave us some direction, and now we know to start the skin up a bit further down the valley.
Thanks for the words of support. I've posted an account of what happened in the Weak Layers forum. Please read - I and my partners welcome any and all input no matter how critical as long as the intent is to educate.
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=27691.msg116394#msg116394
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=27691.msg116394#msg116394
Outstanding work and the embodiment of the ski mountaineering spirit. I know well that time frame of the go-no go, good choice.
The team is suffering the vagaries of weather. Read more at the blog.
FWIW, I was there as well with a Pro Guiding Servive AIARE 1 class. We also dug pits on the Kendal Stump ridge, on the East aspect, 30 deg, at 4650'. The snowpack was right side up except for a thin layer approximately 20-25cm down that we penetrated on foot and ski - it was Fist above and below, but 4 Finger to 1 Finger in the layer. In our pits we consistently (6 CT and DT tests) had CT with Moderate results, Q3, 35cm down on a thin (1cm) layer of mixed graupel and deformed/fragmented;...
author=John Morrow link=topic=27649.msg116238#msg116238 date=1361814198]
Has anybody else found good conditions on that ridge before, or mostly ski the basin?
J
Been up the Bow a couple of times. We skied the ridge once because conditions were sketchy, and I remember it being pretty fun. I remember a pillow line below it somewhere. And one time we dropped to the Jim Hill valley from the summit of the Bow. Steep trees and some...
Sorry to hear Will. Glad you came out relatively unscathed.
author=Animal link=topic=27649.msg116221#msg116221 date=1361777539]
Nice TR John! Yes, we were skiing a bit lower, and the snow on Sunday was thickening up!
Sorry we didn't make it your way Kevin. Something out of ventilator parking was the consensus of the day thinking a shorter more direct approach might be beneficial with all the new snow.
Sounds like folks had a good time up there yoyoing!
Next time...
Fun looking natural half-pipe! You all going to the snowbash PDX? Be nice to meet some more folks in Portland.
author=Edgesport link=topic=27652.msg116197#msg116197 date=1361759802]
Deep consolidated powder. Get some.
Found same conditions on Sunday, Nice powder in the morning, heavier but skiable in the afternoon. Its obvious Saturday was the better day, I had an invite and shoulda skied both days last weekend...
Willie, no wonder you were as white as a ghost when you popped out of the PCT and hit the parking lot. I did not realize at the time the extent of what you went through. I'm glad your still walking, and wish I would have had a few shots of whisky lined up for ya at the "after party".
Zack
Zack
Well written man! (this is jack fyi) It was definitely a great trip and i was excited to ski that new area(for me) with some good friends. Turns were amazing and the stoke was high throughout the trip. Nice seeing all you other gentlemen on the trail! Glad you all had a good day too!
yep you got it Lowell, the couloir is just left of my glove, just looker's left of the rocky ridge/summit that is DP--it winds down from between 7614' Mantis and Distal Phalanx (Mantis's sub-peak immediately west). Mantis would be the logical top-out, but there was too much rock showing for us to imagine skiing the last bit from the top.
So...Gordy climbed our ski route, not that deep cleft on Mantis that faces a little bit more easterly? (Which looks pretty cool, b...
So...Gordy climbed our ski route, not that deep cleft on Mantis that faces a little bit more easterly? (Which looks pretty cool, b...
author=Jsper link=topic=27661.msg116242#msg116242 date=1361816419]
Short legs, huge heart, ur the man!!!
Another, justly rewarded, massive effort!
Epic pic of the NE face of Stuart & the Ice cliff, looks knarly.
Great motivation getting in there solo again. I do wonder if I can feel an Enchantments cave coming on....
Great motivation getting in there solo again. I do wonder if I can feel an Enchantments cave coming on....
Looks fun Edgesport!
My wife and I found lots of excellent snow all weekend in the low/medium angle trees on Hood. On Sunday, we ventured into some deposited wind styrofoam that skied better than we thought.
We didn't ski where you did, as I thought it would be a zoo in there with all the storm hype coming out of the Meadows blog. By the way, how were the crowds over there this weekend?
My wife and I found lots of excellent snow all weekend in the low/medium angle trees on Hood. On Sunday, we ventured into some deposited wind styrofoam that skied better than we thought.
We didn't ski where you did, as I thought it would be a zoo in there with all the storm hype coming out of the Meadows blog. By the way, how were the crowds over there this weekend?
author=Chainsaw_Willie link
I was the skier who triggered and subsequently got a ride in the avy on Heather Ridge.
any day skiing is better than work right will?
glad you are fine and look forward to your story.
b
Glad you're all right Willie.
I'd post it in the Weak Layers forum, with a link to that post here in the TR. Thanks for being willing to share it.
I'd post it in the Weak Layers forum, with a link to that post here in the TR. Thanks for being willing to share it.
I was the skier who triggered and subsequently got a ride in the avy on Heather Ridge.
I'm working on writing up what happened and will post it later today. I'm looking forward to any/all discussion about this incident.
Is it best to post this sort of thing as a trip report, or should it be in the Weak Layers forum?
I'm working on writing up what happened and will post it later today. I'm looking forward to any/all discussion about this incident.
Is it best to post this sort of thing as a trip report, or should it be in the Weak Layers forum?
Re: "micro-topographic spatial heterogeneity."
I just love it!
So sexy!
Never again will I say "localized variations in the snowpack."
I think that with a little thought a guy could use that line to find himself a hot girlfriend who rips.
Keep up the good work!
I just love it!
So sexy!
Never again will I say "localized variations in the snowpack."
I think that with a little thought a guy could use that line to find himself a hot girlfriend who rips.
Keep up the good work!
author=alecapone link=topic=27649.msg116235#msg116235 date=1361812989]
Z-bo's splitboarding buddy better be at home resting his knee!
nice work John. I like Sila's name ' the bow'.
i like the bow too. my usual partner is at home resting. I got out with the profound slut of snow in his absence. From one ripping splitter to the next.
Wow...That's a lot of people in one skin track.
I can second the avalanche on Heather Ridge. We were skinning up after our second run and found the party that triggered the slide. Thankfully nobody got buried, but the trigger did tweak their knee.
Feb. 24th, 2013; around 11:30 a.m. on a E slope at ~38 degrees at 5300`. The crown was 12-20 inches deep. The slide was triggered at the top of the ridge on windloaded (medium hardness) slab a steep convex roll-over over a sun crust under reported moderate avalanche conditions. The s...
Feb. 24th, 2013; around 11:30 a.m. on a E slope at ~38 degrees at 5300`. The crown was 12-20 inches deep. The slide was triggered at the top of the ridge on windloaded (medium hardness) slab a steep convex roll-over over a sun crust under reported moderate avalanche conditions. The s...
Appreciate the details provided - good for your team for testing rather than just assuming.
author=carvitto link=topic=27649.msg116241#msg116241 date=1361816133]
Worth noting. Be careful up there!
Seems like those small grains on the planar failures were indeed buried SH, huh....
Worth noting. Be careful up there!
author=alecapone link=topic=27649.msg116235#msg116235 date=1361812989]
Z-bo's splitboarding buddy better be at home resting his knee!
I like Sila's name ' the bow'.
He sure seemed pretty content on that knee yesterday!
Henceforth, I shall refer to it as "the Bow". I like that name, and shorter for TR titles, too!
Has anybody else found good conditions on that ridge b...
Z-bo's splitboarding buddy better be at home resting his knee!
nice work John. I like Sila's name ' the bow'.
nice work John. I like Sila's name ' the bow'.
wow.. five and a half hours? talk about an approach!
Nice effort in the deep snow. love the pillow lines in that area.
Nice effort in the deep snow. love the pillow lines in that area.
author=dannycoolski link=topic=27642.msg116178#msg116178 date=1361726768]
Hi all,
Below is a little thing I put together on recent skiing in the San Juan's. Hope you enjoy.
http://shralptown.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/first-week-back-in-the-san-juans/
Cool pic of Arrow, Vestal, and the Trinities! My only trip ever in to the Colorado Rockies, sublime place...
That stuff is in your back yar...
author=z-bo link=topic=27649.msg116207#msg116207 date=1361763691]
I wasn't up there today. Maybe my buddy was. I can definitely say we were the only ones up there yesterday.
OK, we must have met and talked with your buddy then: splitboader, gets out a bunch. I guess I didn't realize he had a different partner each day.
Nice TR John! Yes, we were skiing a bit lower, and the snow on Sunday was thickening up!
A few years ago I watched a cornice break off and trigger a slide onto the east slope from a point on the ridge just a bit below the summit, with the cornice fracture a little too close to my ski tips for comfort (I was next to two trees which gave me perhaps too much comfort). Sure grabbed my attention!
Awesome day at Smithbrook. Great pillows, we are also grateful for the skin track that was laid. We winter camped in the area, and skied the trees below Lichtenberg Lake. The pillows were awesome!
Great day, and we appreciated the skin track immensely :). We were the two guys that caught up to your group then stopped below the ridge and did three sweet laps. The larger open areas has an easily found crust and also sluffed easily. Trees were where is was at. Fun zone.
Just to be clear, you skied what Beckey calls the North Route on Mantis Peak, correct? That's the line that my brother Gordy first climbed in May 1982. It's the couloir between Mantis and Distal Phalanx, somewhat left of where Eric is pointing in your picture.
author=John Morrow link=topic=27649.msg116193#msg116193 date=1361757766]
Pt 5909' that I'll call Arrowhead's "little sibling"
Some of us have called it "the bow"
I wasn't up there today. Maybe my buddy was. I can definitely say we were the only ones up there yesterday.
author=z-bo link=topic=27649.msg116202#msg116202 date=1361762278]
Observation 1 and 2 were from me and a buddy yesterday, albeit the upper slide was about 50 feet across. nothing unmanageable, but the upper mountain kicked us out to lower elevations in the afternoon. We tickled her softly in the morning , then she gave us the boot. We put a couple tracks where you Skied. Amazed there was on evidence.
Great to meet you two up...
quite the avy chutes in the background of the third pic
Observation 1 and 2 were from me and a buddy yesterday, albeit the upper slide was about 50 feet across. nothing unmanageable, but the upper mountain kicked us out to lower elevations in the afternoon. We tickled her softly in the morning , then she gave us the boot. We put a couple tracks where you Skied. Amazed there was on evidence.
It's just that the open glades around the corner are too much fun for me to pass up for descending...
Great report. You probably ran into Tundra and Hopi -- they were out with their crew today. Apparently Hopi was barking all day to get your attention...
Thanks for the great report and tips! I'll be chasing my humans out in that same area today........
-Summit
-Summit