TR Replies
Looks great! Thanks for posting!
yeah...well...even though you were being more honest than I thought...it still got my jealousy up...and hence I explored some new stuff to me. it was great!
Marcus - thank your friend for sharing this.
JoeCat's report of kicking off a slide at Heather Ridge on Thursday (yet another recent report is in part what led my party (one of whom was fully buried about 20 years ago and who now demostrates what I'd call healthy caution - something I'm willing to listen to but don't always exhibit to the same degree when left to my own) to head to the relatively moderate treed slopes of Yodelin on Saturday. We noticed a bit of a w...
JoeCat's report of kicking off a slide at Heather Ridge on Thursday (yet another recent report is in part what led my party (one of whom was fully buried about 20 years ago and who now demostrates what I'd call healthy caution - something I'm willing to listen to but don't always exhibit to the same degree when left to my own) to head to the relatively moderate treed slopes of Yodelin on Saturday. We noticed a bit of a w...
Nope - we honestly didn't know where we were headed, only that N/NW aspects were where we wanted to go. We followed our noses to good snow; sounds like you did too!
That puppy had two sets of tracks in it from Thursday on early Friday morning. But the four tracks coming down the super sketch off angle sort-of-a-couloir-sort-of-a-mixed-climb-route just to the north of that were really impressive.
author=tim_place link=topic=12493.msg52229#msg52229 date=1236009567]
It is riddled with rocks, wires, sharks and an errant hippopotamus. Highly recommend to avoid this nasty bit of terrain!!
Wow. Sounded dangerous up until the hippopotamus. That I've got to see. ;). (Truth be told, there are plenty of other stashes to keep me busy.)
author=Hyakbc link=topic=12504.msg52253#msg52253 date=1236040218]
The Zipper is tracked out.
Smile when you say that, partner! ;)
Indeed it does, John. Spooky stuff. From the pit results in my avy class Saturday and Sunday, it's a very complex snowpack right now. Ought to make for an interesting couple of months.
Whoa Marcus, thanks for sharing the narrative.
I honestly am a bit shook up at the moment because after a quiet winter thus far, 4 stories of near miss incidents have surfaced in one week.
One is the burial and rescue of the fiancé of the daughter of a friend that happened in the Vahallas. The other three are Central Cascades localities: this story, the one Zap has provided the weblink for in Random Tracks, and the one on the NWAC report of a snowmobile at Gallagher Head Lake are...
I honestly am a bit shook up at the moment because after a quiet winter thus far, 4 stories of near miss incidents have surfaced in one week.
One is the burial and rescue of the fiancé of the daughter of a friend that happened in the Vahallas. The other three are Central Cascades localities: this story, the one Zap has provided the weblink for in Random Tracks, and the one on the NWAC report of a snowmobile at Gallagher Head Lake are...
author=russ link=topic=12504.msg52240#msg52240 date=1236027948]
Don - what route did you take to get over the ridge to Grand Junction? Too bad you last photo wasn't take from a little bit further to the west, then we could see how Zipper Chute is filling in - did you notice how it looked?
Tx - Russ
Russ, Sorry about the photo. It was early enough that downhill traffic was light, so we just took the edge of the big...
thanks for shareing - sounds scary.
<ditto>
<ditto>
I was gonna do Granite, but it's either the west bowl or the south face for a ski....and I was skeptical of the amount of sun Friday...
Whew, thanks for the info.....coulda been a disaster...
Ill hit up some green circles on 2 instead.
Ill hit up some green circles on 2 instead.
Rusty, I was one of the grinning folks who chatted with you on our way out from the north side and reminisced about my own boy scout snow camping experiences. Those kids are lucky they've got some folks willing and able to take em out there - what a great learning experience. Glad you got a few turns in.
Don - what route did you take to get over the ridge to Grand Junction? Too bad you last photo wasn't take from a little bit further to the west, then we could see how Zipper Chute is filling in - did you notice how it looked?
Tx - Russ
Tx - Russ
author=Rusty Knees link=topic=12506.msg52221#msg52221 date=1235978092]
I was up there camping with a group of scouts next to Skyline Lake. ....I was a wee bit jealous, thinking of all the nice snow on the backside, but...duty called. All scouts returned safely to their homes. I think.
Rusty Knees, that brings back good memories of hauling camping gear in on sleds with young scouts and building igloos and caves for hours up the...
It's called "Tim's Secret Stash".
It is riddled with rocks, wires, sharks and an errant hippopotumus. Highy recmomend to avoid this nasty bit of terrain!!
It is riddled with rocks, wires, sharks and an errant hippopotumus. Highy recmomend to avoid this nasty bit of terrain!!
Winddaveski and I did your tour last week (2/21).
We got reciprocal tickets from Brighton for our Crystal passes and did the same approach, but traversed lower and skied skiers right of the Crazy 8's. Then up to Patsy Marley for the views and down the chutes on Patsy Marley.
We wanted to ski those chutes that you skied, but they were wind hammered on that side of the cirque. Settled for boot deep creamy ski on less effected slopes. The only danger was maybe some wind slab and the...
We got reciprocal tickets from Brighton for our Crystal passes and did the same approach, but traversed lower and skied skiers right of the Crazy 8's. Then up to Patsy Marley for the views and down the chutes on Patsy Marley.
We wanted to ski those chutes that you skied, but they were wind hammered on that side of the cirque. Settled for boot deep creamy ski on less effected slopes. The only danger was maybe some wind slab and the...
I knew there were some TAYers up there. Glad you had a good time. I was up there camping with a group of scouts next to Skyline Lake. I was able to get a way for three runs from the high point of the ridge down to the lake (twice Saturday night after sundown, with headlamp ;D). On the lake side, as long as I stayed in or near the trees, the snow was great! In the clearings (and of course the way out) the crust made it slow going.
Saw lots of folks Saturday and Su...
Saw lots of folks Saturday and Su...
author=RafMax link=topic=12493.msg52171#msg52171 date=1235922961]
The couloir on the westish side of the arm looks sweet too BTW....
This one? Does it have a name?
author=Lowell_Skoog link=topic=12500.msg52198#msg52198 date=1235958432]
* Gosh, that seems pretty complicated when you type it all out...
Thanks Lowell. It does seem complicated----maybe it just goes along with earning your turns....
Great day and nice to meet some chilled folk up there. We were all down in the dumps on the way up with at least 20 folk that we saw, however we only saw 5 others during riding part of the day so all good in the end.
That place always seems to be good to me - long may it continue.
That place always seems to be good to me - long may it continue.
Homage indeed! Hey Jim, did I remember to tell you how nice it was Friday??? ;D
Snow quality is not the utmost importance, as long as there is snow for the quality...
Snow quality is not the utmost importance, as long as there is snow for the quality...
Do your pictures always come with sunshine! nice shots .
I was just gonna buy a ticket and do the demos, but several factors conspired to change my plans to a BC day
* Late start
* ... leading to full parking lots (but thankfully found a squeezer right in Lot C)
* and mighty crowds
* Got targeted for revenue enhancement by WSP on that ridiculous 35 zone CM Blvd as it straightens out (noticed later how there are 2 plowed out pullouts right there either side of road ... guess what those are for ... they could be handing out tix as fa...
* Late start
* ... leading to full parking lots (but thankfully found a squeezer right in Lot C)
* and mighty crowds
* Got targeted for revenue enhancement by WSP on that ridiculous 35 zone CM Blvd as it straightens out (noticed later how there are 2 plowed out pullouts right there either side of road ... guess what those are for ... they could be handing out tix as fa...
The above experiment worked. Here's what I did (on a Windows machine running the Firefox browser):
* Clicked on Picasaweb link above (http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffs1950/HurricaneRidge#)...
Oops---pics are located at http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffs1950/HurricaneRidge#
Can someone tell me what I need to do different to make the thumbnail images appear in my post? I followed the directions exactly. Does it have something to do with the fact that Picasa URLs don't have a "www" in them?
Can someone tell me what I need to do different to make the thumbnail images appear in my post? I followed the directions exactly. Does it have something to do with the fact that Picasa URLs don't have a "www" in them?
Really nice day. Nice to run into you trumpetsailor.
Northwest,
Look like you found some decent conditions. Which area did you visit? Looks kind of like McCully.
Frank
Look like you found some decent conditions. Which area did you visit? Looks kind of like McCully.
Frank
Photos from the day are at:
http://www.the808.net/gallery/Excelsior-2-26-2009
Some highlights:
Travertine enjoying the view
http://www.the808.net/gallery/Excelsior-2-26-2009
Some highlights:
Travertine enjoying the view
Nice to see all of you up there yesterday. Given that it was my first outing to Yodelin, it was nice to be with someone who knew lots of options so that we had plenty of open canvas despite the fact that the 10th mountain division seemed to be up there. Lots of dogs having fun too! Some aspects started getting heavier in the afternoon, but we shifted and found fluff 'til the end. It was nice to have had many crust-scuffers head down the road ahead of us before we bailed to the car at 3-ish.
Nice work the North Facing slopes were holding some great conditions.
Here's a few more from Crystal BC on 2/28. Stellar conditions lead to everything within easy reach of the inbounds getting slaughtered like I've never seen.
You can see a small avy lookers left in this pic. This was the only sign of instability I saw t...
You can see a small avy lookers left in this pic. This was the only sign of instability I saw t...
On our last lap we ran a cool little pillowed face above and R of the top of the old lift.
Good day. guys---any photos for the world, Chris?
Good day. guys---any photos for the world, Chris?
A few more details for your entertainment and possibly education. After the whoomp and skinning back up hill, we started to tell stories, as old farts do, about accidents we knew due to buried hoar/TG layers. Particularly sneaky buggers, hard to find by digging pits. The survival rate we knew was 50%. More open slopes with more wind and less hoar seemed a good bet , more predictable.
After releasing the soft slab on suncrust we starting telling stories about this typ...
After releasing the soft slab on suncrust we starting telling stories about this typ...
author=Larry_R link=topic=12491.msg52168#msg52168 date=1235913442]
This report is to put the idea that 'better late than never' to the test. :)
Nonetheless, we started up at around 6 AM, and because I was not completely trusting what my snowpack model was saying, I did not have particularly high hopes. By the 4600 foot 'road bend' things were somewhat better, but by the time we got to the top of the ridge (~5200 ft) we had bright...
Three of us and a dog were up there on Friday. The snow conditions were very good until the last 4-500 feet back to the cars. Lots of sun and fun to be had.
We dug a pit and found similiar layers but really couldn't get them to budge.
It is snowing up there now and supposed to warm.
We dug a pit and found similiar layers but really couldn't get them to budge.
It is snowing up there now and supposed to warm.
Thought I’d comment here on ski conditions in the bc…
Big crowds in the Alpental bc today (Feb 28) by way of upper gate GS traverse. Wanting to earn-my-turns, I skinned out of the upper parking (full) lot about 2pm, temp low 40 deg, light cloud cover. Ascend via the main Source Lake drainage (skiers left, thru trees) to GS bowl. Packed powder in drainage, pretty tracked out to my surprise. Upper bowl (North aspect) nice pow (wind deposit) as expected, lots of ski tracks from the A...
Big crowds in the Alpental bc today (Feb 28) by way of upper gate GS traverse. Wanting to earn-my-turns, I skinned out of the upper parking (full) lot about 2pm, temp low 40 deg, light cloud cover. Ascend via the main Source Lake drainage (skiers left, thru trees) to GS bowl. Packed powder in drainage, pretty tracked out to my surprise. Upper bowl (North aspect) nice pow (wind deposit) as expected, lots of ski tracks from the A...
Glad the gang got the goods. If I hadn't been introducing 8 high school outdoor ed students to backcountry skiing at Yodelin, I'd been right there with you. Sadly, looks like a few days of beastly weather heading in.
author=Tophervw link=topic=12480.msg52135#msg52135 date=1235849310]
Dogs left in condos downtown lead a pretty boring life.
I'm not trying to add fuel to the fire, but in my opinion, leaving a dog stuck inside a condo all day long could be worse than the risks of being on a snow covered mountain. Too many pets are indoors all day while people are working or in this case, playing, instead of being included in the fun. I agr...
Re: Dog skiing - In Jackson Hole, one of my good friends sister is a vet in town. She patches up dogs cut up skiing all winter long 2-3 a week, sometimes more. In the summer, same stats with dogs who fall out of pickups and get chewed up by the roads/other cars. Most dog owners I know would never let their dogs ride in pickups untethered, however, they take them skiing... I see a disconnect.
I like dogs, when I own one, I will not take him/her skiing, unless I commit the 20-40 hours a week...
I like dogs, when I own one, I will not take him/her skiing, unless I commit the 20-40 hours a week...
author=Marcus link=topic=12468.msg52152#msg52152 date=1235877944]
Sounds like that half inch layer may be the same layer of rounds that was moving easily around Alpental today. Could be a nasty one this week if the snow keeps coming.
Funny Marcus, I dug a hasty pit around Kendal Stump yesterday at 3800 feet, and found when I gave it a hand tug it moved on a good shear, but with a pretty hard tug on that south aspect: on those sam...
Sounds like that half inch layer may be the same layer of rounds that was moving easily around Alpental today. Could be a nasty one this week if the snow keeps coming.
author=fogle link=topic=12468.msg52127#msg52127 date=1235798061]
John,
Woody & I saw the same build up back in the last weeks of Dec in the same neck_of_the_woods. The ultimate revelation will be what happens to promote or degenerate the existing mega crust and the basil layer as we move towards inevitable melting...
Thanks for the reminder, Steve. Last year in May we sure did have some dramatic slides after intens...