TR Replies
Nice to see you again Matt. I think 9500 is close enough to just round up.
Great video Jim.
Great video Jim.
Planned on doing Crystal Peak today, but it's been hit. Damn!!!
Thanks for the beta.
Thanks for the beta.
Nice dude, good day to be out riding.
Great way to avoid the crowds!!!! Looking forward to explorin that area more.
Thought I would add a few pics from the night. Amazing trip, thanks for joining up and burning the midnight oil! Can't wait till all the cards fall into place again.
You found my glove!
I'll send you a PM so we can figure out a low-hassle way for me to get the glove back. Thanks for retrieving it.
I'm glad the skin track was helpful. I hope the all the forest-land skin-track shenanigans were OK - lots of logs, holes and short switchbacks, but totally worth the effort. We got out of the middle-fork hole faster than we expected.
We shoulda sucked it up and added the Slot to the end of our day. Oyvind's party put...
I'll send you a PM so we can figure out a low-hassle way for me to get the glove back. Thanks for retrieving it.
I'm glad the skin track was helpful. I hope the all the forest-land skin-track shenanigans were OK - lots of logs, holes and short switchbacks, but totally worth the effort. We got out of the middle-fork hole faster than we expected.
We shoulda sucked it up and added the Slot to the end of our day. Oyvind's party put...
Love the photos....keep 'em coming please....
WOW !! Very nice looking pow, tracks, setting.....
author=joeldiesel link=topic=12630.msg52778#msg52778 date=1236973381]
The crew at Ski Bowl is MUCH more accommodating to touring folks, and just way more mellow in general than at Meadows. They will shake you down but almost always let you go if you show some level of experience/intelligence. The Meadows guys will pretty much tackle you and drag you outta there. Ski Bowl blows Meadows off the map when they have some snow.
Terra...
Wind and sun have had their way with the Slot as of today.
As of yesterday the 12th around 2ish the phantom was quite a bit more thick and chewy. The sun was really cooking it. On some steeper parts a ski cut would send a sluff down, perhaps enough to knock someone off their feet, but it wasn't really slab like. It was still beautiful up there in all that sun.
The crew at Ski Bowl is MUCH more accommodating to touring folks, and just way more mellow in general than at Meadows. They will shake you down but almost always let you go if you show some level of experience/intelligence. The Meadows guys will pretty much tackle you and drag you outta there. Ski Bowl blows Meadows off the map when they have some snow.
author=Snow Bell link=topic=12655.msg52767#msg52767 date=1236965906]
It sounds like you were a day late on that tour Kyle. Slacking? ;)
No way I dont think I could have done it if I was breaking trail ;)
throughout the day I would run into random people and we would joke about THOSE DAMN SNOWBOARDERS and there bootpacking
Another version including the day before and way too many pictures
http://www.tetongravity....
Uh huh...SLot was goood, tanks for du road up.
Great idea and cool shots. I used to do this almost every month when I lived in Salt Lake. We also went ice and rock climbing by full moon, sometimes without headlamps at all, which led to some tricky work placing and retreiving pro out of dark cracks!
i don't think i've ever seen a bootpacked skin track out there.... maybe folks are starting to get wise...
author=trumpetsailor link=topic=12646.msg52723#msg52723 date=1236890240]
I'd agree. Those trees in the photos are pretty well spaced!
Ok you kids are paying close attention! I will have to find one of the photos from in the trees to post as well. The higher stuff was deeper and more easily recorded. :)
author=Kyle Miller link=topic=12655.msg52747#msg52747 date=1236913767]
Skin tracks and bootpacks were all over the Silver Basin from 3 way all the way to bear gap.
It sounds like you were a day late on that tour Kyle. Slacking? ;)
I followed a lot of that path, never has there been that much boot pack to and on ridges.............those snowboarders are dedicated.And they have to be exhausted.
Kyle,
Very nice tour. I kept looking towards Threeway and Dog leg as we were riding the lifts. Those young legs covered a lot of mileage. ;)
It was a perfect day to be in the mountains.
Very nice tour. I kept looking towards Threeway and Dog leg as we were riding the lifts. Those young legs covered a lot of mileage. ;)
It was a perfect day to be in the mountains.
What fun ! And nice pics, too. I've done some midnight touring, but only on levelish ground and track gear. Getting in some turns in a 3D environment where you are embedded in a photographic negative must be a rush, if slightly disorienting sensation. It's been a few years, but we would occasionally fly our hangliders under a full moon when we could find an upslope wind. Ridge soaring, in black and white, where terrain features and objects, like trees, whi...
One of the coolest ideas and days to do it -- nice initiative for the full moon skiing! It was indeed a beautiful cold night! Would have loved to join that one! We saved up for a tour of the North Face of Chair down to Snow Lake today. Lots of wind affected slabs -- it was a wind tunnel. South facing slopes are getting very crusty.
Great pictures that came out! All that time hanging around getting cold and the others never came out!
Wish I could start again from last Friday, the past week certainly has been the highlight.
Wish I could start again from last Friday, the past week certainly has been the highlight.
This week has been the highlight of the season so far. Nice getting out with you all. Most of my photos did not work due to cold hands.
Looks great Oyvind, glad to see that you're not coughing up lung. Or were you?
Thanks for the invite,too......
Thanks for the invite,too......
Thanks for your patience with us geezers on two such powderful days!
My 'woomph' between Glacier Vista and the morraine was the loudest I ever recall. Sounded more like a 'boom' & I swear I felt the slope settle, just dumb luck that there was no fracture on the slight rollover. From the glacier below it was clear that the sides of the Nisqually canyon are heavily cross-loaded with pillow-like dunes that the west storm winds were pushing diagonally upslope.
My 'woomph' between Glacier Vista and the morraine was the loudest I ever recall. Sounded more like a 'boom' & I swear I felt the slope settle, just dumb luck that there was no fracture on the slight rollover. From the glacier below it was clear that the sides of the Nisqually canyon are heavily cross-loaded with pillow-like dunes that the west storm winds were pushing diagonally upslope.
Touring under a full moon in fresh snow is amazing. I haven't done it in a while, though. Good job getting out for it this week!
Indeed, though sometimes there is the lure of the banged-out uptrack...
I'd agree. Those trees in the photos are pretty well spaced!
We watched you guys exit the coulior and heard shouts of joy as we were skinning out of the trees from the North Fork drainage. It looked like a blast!
Great stuff Larry -- as always, I love the fine-tuning to make things more tolerable/more fun.
Marcus, here's another oddball thought that you (and maybe only you) :) will appreciate. I've experimented with pole grips a fair amount, and I've found that if you have to use one or more Grabbers in your mitts, and if they need to be palm side to keep your hands warm, the pole grip diameter should be less than the standard BC grip. By the time you have your over-mitts with mitt liners on, with hand warmers too, a standard grip is too large. You can't get a good grip...
If I weren't still at work, there'd be more tracks tomorrow, though perhaps not there. My USGS quads are full of mountains with northwest-facing slopes. Some of them even manage to escape the sun :).
If I didn't have to work, there'd have been more tracks today...
I put 2k of the track in after work on Monday (the snowing slowed way down around 5pm). No worries, I've taken my share of free rides going up through there. Feels good to give back.
my friend Frank and I broke that trail yesterday during our repeat of "mt catherine plus". We did the tour in reverse with Silver Pk - Twin Lakes first then up to Mt Catherine. The new snow from Monday had nearly covered all of Sunday's tracks so trail breaking was pretty tough. The ridge of Mt Catherine had lots of slabby wind lips that made the end of the tour a trailbreaking challenge. Everything skied nearly as well as Sunday. Saw only two other skiers who had broke a trail in...
new to touring in the area, but not new to touring...would love to know how to access this....drop me a line This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Apologies for my not-so-snow-conserving lines, though there was still plenty to go around.
As you said - there was plenty of slope to go around. Judging from added tracks, I think there was at least 2 others up there today. But we didn't see them either - nice having semi-private mountains :) .
I am surprised that you were surprised to find yourself pursued by a snow cat on a trail groomed by such machines almost 2 hours before the resort opened. I, too, often climb the first section of the Heather Canyon Runout to gain access to the pea gravel for access to Newton. When I smell the diesel from the cats or pass the thoroughly bad-mouthed baggy pants types I hike a little faster to get out of the resort as soon as possible. To each there own, though.
There was lots of g...
There was lots of g...
author=russ link=topic=12632.msg52670#msg52670 date=1236822842]
Hey Trumpetsailor - was that your maroon wagon closest to the turn around? If so we were an hour or so behind you. Nice using our track from Sunday, retrod by Jim O. yesterday.
Yep. I recognized your car, and was surprised I didn't see you. Apologies for my not-so-snow-conserving lines, though there was still plenty to go around. I didn't really expect tha...
Hey Trumpetsailor - was that your maroon wagon closest to the turn around? If so we were an hour or so behind you. Nice using our track from Sunday, retrod by Jim O. yesterday.
We had a stellar 3 lap day, great having this lingering soft snow stay in good shape on the west slopes. Exposed south slope are starting to crust over.
We had a stellar 3 lap day, great having this lingering soft snow stay in good shape on the west slopes. Exposed south slope are starting to crust over.
Last year it was either $14 or 15 which was barely tolerable.
Yes I believe it is still okay to climb mt. hood...but somebody should take that damn gun away from meadows. That place has always been a piece of s__t . Have not skied there since '71...and it sounds like it has only gotten worse. Can't believe the f.s allowed that rediculous gun. Learn to do your job, then go do it with out a gun. They are going to kill somebody at some point. Meadows does not need a gun to do their job--if they can't figure...
Thanks for the tip on Catherine! Had a wonderful dawn patrol outing up there this morning with your (or someone's) skin track nicely set in for us. Powder tree skiing all the way down the north side with plenty of fun drops along the way.
Was up there today in that nice powder; broke trail from 4th Xing to the cornices on the knife-edge ridge facing east over the back bowl on the way to Stevens-VanTrump Monument/Sluskin Falls. But by that time the sun was really starting to affect the snow on east and south slopes (despite a high of 19 F when I left the parking lot) and I didn't want to be on that slope or under those cornices.
You guys must have made the trail from the 'toilet bowl' just below 4th...
You guys must have made the trail from the 'toilet bowl' just below 4th...
author=alpymarr link=topic=12628.msg52646#msg52646 date=1236796048]
At least 3 feet unconsolidated fluff there.
I want to go to there...
Stimbuck - not sure if you put the trail in to the top of Snoqualmie - but thanks to you or whoever did - used it for a good cause this morning. Quite pleasant run down the Slot and then a still pleasant run down the Phantom (even the waterfall was good).