TR Replies
author=rnbfish link=topic=9973.msg40160#msg40160 date=1210017433]
grapevine is that it was a climbing ranger. 100 feet into a crack. no rope. broken back
It was not a climbing ranger.
FYI, the patient will recover. Don't linger on bridges!
Great photos Jay!
It's too bad that the snow didn't hold for day 2 but it looks like the weather was a good consolation prize. 8)
I wish that it had worked out for me to join you but it sounds like you may need to get back up there in a couple of weeks anyhow.
It's too bad that the snow didn't hold for day 2 but it looks like the weather was a good consolation prize. 8)
I wish that it had worked out for me to join you but it sounds like you may need to get back up there in a couple of weeks anyhow.
More details: I'm thinking it took us 8 hours, more or less to get to to 5,500'. The snow started around 2,000' and we started skiing where the trail crosses the creek coming out of the lake. We gradually worked our way southwest from the lake until we hit the nose of the ridge, then proceeded south. Above 4200' it starts to open up, I'd recommend staying to the n. of the nose through that section to avoid a lot of up and down. The last 800'...
author=freeheel4ever link=topic=9983.msg40169#msg40169 date=1210029651]
This is a tour I have wanted to do for a very long time. I have been to the ridge above Pyramid lake but no further. Would you be so kind as to give more details like were you able to ski from the car? Time to camp etc? Is the Neve glacier a worth while destination for skiing? What route did you take to get past Pyramid Peak? Very much appreciated.
What he sai...
Boy, it was sure noisy out there, eh? We took a nap after bailing and skied up to the ridge top and skied down (surfed) on goop. It was a good time and a great day. Trying to take a nap with everything coming down off every aspect was interesting, surely disrupting my dreams of domination. Ha. Reality sucks that way :).
It was nice meeting you, although I was only half awake at the time.
It was nice meeting you, although I was only half awake at the time.
cool trip! Could you give an estimate of how steep the mesachie icefall gulley gets?
This is a tour I have wanted to do for a very long time. I have been to the ridge above Pyramid lake but no further. Would you be so kind as to give more details like were you able to ski from the car? Time to camp etc? Is the Neve glacier a worth while destination for skiing? What route did you take to get past Pyramid Peak? Very much appreciated.
Great accomplishment Adrienne! When you spoke of your adventure at FF with Eddie and I, I was hoping you would write a trip report and share the adventure; thanks for that and congratulations!
Im rather sure it was me in the parking lot. As for the fall it was not a climbing ranger the trip was intended to ski the Wilson headwall and the guy stayed on the snowbridge for too long. As for the person guiding the trip whom I've loosely known for the past few years it wasnt his fault at all people just need to be fast when crossing snowbridges.
I was with Hendershot on the trip. The gate is open and you can drive within a mile and a half of the trailhead. The debris is almost certainly a loose slide (possibly skier triggered, there was a skin track all the way up to the col), although we didn't quite make it up that high.
However, the snowpack felt bomber on the glacier, at least the parts that we were on, which hadn't received much afternoon sun. There was no evidence of the 12-18 inches of wate...
However, the snowpack felt bomber on the glacier, at least the parts that we were on, which hadn't received much afternoon sun. There was no evidence of the 12-18 inches of wate...
Looks like you had mre than a few rebels mixed in with the yanks. As a Virginian, I must ask - what brought reenactors to Marblemount?
Excellent view!
Excellent view!
Right on with the trip, so I take it the gate is open now? Are those tracks high up on the glacier or a slide?
Where specifically was this? We went down from Muir snowfield to Nisqually glacier 3 small chutes left of the huge ice flow. This was NOT intentional (had been aiming for the Nisqually chutes) and was caused by laziness on my behalf due to good visability when I should have taken a bearing. There were a lot of crevasses and the huge ice flow fairly closeby down where we were although we did traverse higher until able to glide straight out to the mountaineers bootpack (for crev...
grapevine is that it was a climbing ranger. 100 feet into a crack. no rope. broken back
How cool. Thanks be to the eye in the sky, and bravo for the excellent execution!
They don't tend to bring out a heli for stinky pants - I hope everyone's ok!
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122131
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122131
No Bridge. Reasonable log-jams two summers ago. Could be scketchy this time of year come to think of it....
Snoslut, snoslut's buddy Dave and myself attempted the Whistler Couloirs on Saturday and were shutdown. We got a later start than we should have so the snow was too soft by the time we started and we were skinning in slurpee snow. We decided to keep going to the skiers left chute and decide what to do from there. The chute was full of avy debris, but we decided to try booting up it anyway to see how it was. The booting was OK, although slow, but the debris was bad enough that the ride back...
I didn't know that this couloir existed until I checked out John Scurlock's website while planning this trip.
Hahaha. Nice Lowell. I may have heard that quote before. In fact, I'm thinking of a bumper sticker. ;D
Nice TR Lowell, thanks for posting -- beautiful line, great style getting it done. Fun pictures too.
Sweet. Scurlock's great pictures find another gem, good work going after it. Nice photos on your part too (I love the one of you raping in - true ski alpinism). Thanks for the report.
I think everyone who had ever bought a polypro shirt was up there this weekend. Did a quick trip down the N' Chute to the bridge, first time ever, much fun in so-so snow. Waiting for Corn season, should be near.
Heard from someone at the Bridge that a skier had fallen 100 ft down a crevasse near the Turtle. Hope he is ok. Sounded like a bunch of scrapes and some stinky pants.
Heard from someone at the Bridge that a skier had fallen 100 ft down a crevasse near the Turtle. Hope he is ok. Sounded like a bunch of scrapes and some stinky pants.
The routefinding was a little tough in the dark. There is some great terrain up at the top. I wonder how safe it is in the winter months.
Kyle ,we were wondering about that cause we had a boarder with us.
Was that you on a split at the lower bridge parking lot?
Was that you on a split at the lower bridge parking lot?
That turn's easy to miss in the dark, especially if your head's down and you're just tooling along. I count the small creek crossings after the last big switchback in order to know when to expect it. Granite's a fun mountain.
and I didn't even have to take off my snowboard. ;)
Howdy Pablo, no blackberry, lo siento. I bet your soon to be wife is glad you lost it if you are anything like me.
I've been up to Elk Meadows in the winter, but never on up to Gnarl Ridge. Sounds interesting, I'd be game. Mt. Defiance seems pretty scary, but I could probably be talked into it. Especially if there is another approach other than from the gorge. I've hiked it in the summer, and there are some really steep parts...
I've been up to Elk Meadows in the winter, but never on up to Gnarl Ridge. Sounds interesting, I'd be game. Mt. Defiance seems pretty scary, but I could probably be talked into it. Especially if there is another approach other than from the gorge. I've hiked it in the summer, and there are some really steep parts...
Nice meeting you guys up there today. We hemmed and hawed about whether to go on to Maple Pass after you guys left but as we headed higher to check out the traverse route, found rapidly worsening snow conditions with about 8-10 inches of ski penetration in mushy snow and decided it wasn't worth the risk. From our turnaround point, however, we spied the ridge running northeast from Heather Pass up to Point 6937 and thought it looked like a nice, protected way to get up to some views and some...
Yee-haba! Tom, turning 50 never felt so fun, eh? You guys are animals.
Dammit, you're not supposed to post photos like the E. Face of Liberty Bell on a skiing website! I hear my rock shoes calling me.
Cool photos!
Cool photos!
Nice call on going early - we left the parking lot around 9:30 so by the time we ski down the sw facing broad slope it had just softening a little too much. Meet up with your tracks down in the valley and basically followed them out just for something different. Plenty of snow up there, but start early to get it in it's best condition.
Bravo! Definitely showing the true elements of ski mountaineering! A lot of people climb and ski stuff - way to do it right. Nice tr and great pics!
From the NW Avalanche Daily Forecast Email:
"Reports on Turns All Year indicated lots of late
season powder and also some damp snow conditions on sun
exposed slopes.
Last weekend there was a close call in an avalanche due to
wind transport, a terrain convexity, and a crusted bed
surface. There was also a scare due to a collapsing snow
bridge over a hidden crevasse. Plus there is an ongoing search
for an...
"Reports on Turns All Year indicated lots of late
season powder and also some damp snow conditions on sun
exposed slopes.
Last weekend there was a close call in an avalanche due to
wind transport, a terrain convexity, and a crusted bed
surface. There was also a scare due to a collapsing snow
bridge over a hidden crevasse. Plus there is an ongoing search
for an...
Thanks for the report Rob, especially Whistler couloirs, I was just talking about that last night.
"I SWEAR it was packed-powder on the upper face and the last couple hundred feet in the upper couloir;"
When it's your birthday David you can declare conditions of your favor!
Glad you guys got some skiing in before the loooong night ahead, and to still have energy for parting and dancing into the wee hours of the morning, impressive!!
When it's your birthday David you can declare conditions of your favor!
Glad you guys got some skiing in before the loooong night ahead, and to still have energy for parting and dancing into the wee hours of the morning, impressive!!
Kudos to Hannah for getting me out, although the alternative of her & Amar coming over to make breakfast sounded good the night before. I SWEAR it was packed-powder on the upper face and the last couple hundred feet in the upper couloir; otherwise, I'd have turned around. Unfortunately, I forgot to grap my camera out of my car at N. Bend. Thanks for the fun trip.
author=Jerm link=topic=9945.msg40087#msg40087 date=1209774174]
I was in a group coming down the Phantom around that time, I think there may have been another group ahead of us. You may have heard the rather large pile of wet snow I was able to send crashing over the cliffs in the waterfall area (after checking to see that nobody was below, of course). It made a nice satisfying roar as it filled up a small moat. The top few inches on that side was sliding wit...
Hello, Darin. I'm planning to try that approach soon. But is there still a bridge for it across the Middle Fork?
Amar, thank you for the photos! We saw you and Hannah skinning up the snowbank as we drove past!
All that nice powder had a horrible breakable crust on top of it when we came down The International at 8pm. That coupled with all the wet slide debris from the cliffs made for some of the worst snow I've ever ridden :'(. The sunset was nice though 8).
I can easily imagine that, with daytime heating, the cold and light snow we encountered could've turned malevolent - the bond to the crust wasn't good. We found nothing spooky, only unconsolidated stuff atop crust, but we were back at the car by 8:30 am.
Icy tree bombs had fallen sometime early in the week and drove deep trenches into what must have been the warm base layer as they slid downhill. Neat.
Icy tree bombs had fallen sometime early in the week and drove deep trenches into what must have been the warm base layer as they slid downhill. Neat.
I was up there yesterday myself but not skiing. I did admire a lot of high quality turns, however, and got some photos of those turns from the highway, so I look forward to photos by skiers like you. Here are mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nordique/2458459932/in/set-72157604838162905/
--Pierre
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nordique/2458459932/in/set-72157604838162905/
--Pierre
I was in a group coming down the Phantom around that time, I think there may have been another group ahead of us. You may have heard the rather large pile of wet snow I was able to send crashing over the cliffs in the waterfall area (after checking to see that nobody was below, of course). It made a nice satisfying roar as it filled up a small moat. The top few inches on that side was sliding with some encouragement on the steeper pitches. Lots of slow moving natural activity where s...
I was poking around at the Pass yesterday too, at Alpental, and the AVALANCHE conditions seemed pretty scary to me. I always admit I'm miles from an expert but here is what I saw:
There is a lot of wet heavy snow.
As it heated there were a lot of tree bombs dropping, and decent-sized pinwheels here and there.
here and there there was rubble and little shallow "beds" where many, many small, shallow (a few inches) wet snow slides had slide in terra...
There is a lot of wet heavy snow.
As it heated there were a lot of tree bombs dropping, and decent-sized pinwheels here and there.
here and there there was rubble and little shallow "beds" where many, many small, shallow (a few inches) wet snow slides had slide in terra...
Hey Steve. Hope you're doing well.
On the east side of the range the old -growth in the bottom of Green Creek is oustanding and the upper valley could make a very good ski descent. All accessed from the Elbow Lake Trail another 5-6 miles up the Middle Fork Road. Road is gated about a mile from the trailhead until July.
Best wishes
Darin
On the east side of the range the old -growth in the bottom of Green Creek is oustanding and the upper valley could make a very good ski descent. All accessed from the Elbow Lake Trail another 5-6 miles up the Middle Fork Road. Road is gated about a mile from the trailhead until July.
Best wishes
Darin
author=Larry_R link=topic=9952.msg40075#msg40075 date=1209732870]
One advantage of going back to the same places year after year is that if one's memory is sufficiently poor, they seem fresh each time. So it was Smith Brook Road - Mt. McCausland this week. Skiing in was somewhat of a pain; 2 inches new on top of rotten older snow. All of that recent cold weather and late snow has left the snow rather immature. Teenage perhaps. By evening it was snowing a...
Awesome! Will and I chatted about how awesome those slopes would be today as we cruised back from the pass proper on our way to work. Excellent choice! :).
At least one of us got a face shot....thanks for making me drag my sorry ass up that godforsaken hill!