TR Replies

Nice. Thanks for sharing. Was it the sort of crust that could cut your face if you fell and broke it? If so, extra points.

..did you get to the midpoint where the stream forks? There looks to be a brushy median (east side of stream) and cliffs on the west side from Morningstar. I wonder if the stream bed itself ever gets completely covered past that point...

Not sure which stream "fork" the midpoint would be (as the crow flies, we were over 3/4 of the way to our initial planned destination from starting at the Mountain Loop Highway), our turn-around point was...

cool photo. reminds me of the Jerry Garcia with banjo shot...

Paul - I think we agree. If he has the skills and made good judgments along the way, then no problem for him. Of course.

If you travel well w/o much water, I'm envious, as that doesn't work out as well for me. I tend to dehydrate easily (I sweat a lot, could be the extra fat layer I carry around), and am mindful of what the CO SAR guys told me about how often dehydration figured into hypothermia which factored into more acute injuries or other accidents. Plus I just feel crappy w/o hydrat...

Wow, Jim, you sure seem to be getting awfully fired up here. TAY is far more civil than most boards, but snide comments are still just that. There's no need to be so defensive.

My opinion is that if MW8888 has the skills to assess the snowpack and terrain to his satisfaction, I don't have any reason to think that his dawn patrol was unduly risky.

As for the water issue, I skied for seven hours yesterday and drank less than a quart of tea. I would not turn back from a three hour tou...

I agree with that. Otherwise I wouldn't have much fun making untracked turns!

It's interesting to watch folks go through changes after taking an avy class - at first everything is scary, but then people often seem to cross into a zone where they are perhaps too confident of their assessment ability. Then if they're lucky, they have a near miss and rebalance a bit back toward caution, but with at least guarded optimism that lets them have lotsa calculated fun. I've both read this from the...

nice, boys.

revisionism

Are you suggesting that I or others skied something that we thought had a high risk of avalanche?  I can't speak for others but I assure you that this is not the case!

I saw a pocket slab that broke loose from a SW aspect(presumably a natural release - no evidence of human travel near it) on a ridge top (at about 5600 near but not at Snoqualmie Peak) a couple days after this trip date. So snow had been blowing and settling into spots where there was a sliding surface, at least in places.

In any case, the NWAC had posted something above "low" or the new "very low" hazard level for the day, and I frankly trust their analysis more than...

I guess that some people's "moderate to considerable" is other people's "low" or even "very low"
???
Thanks for diplomatically pointing out the orwellian word games that went on in at least two of the posts here, mr. smith.

I'll re-state a point worth re-stating. I respect that we all draw the lines differently. What I don't respect is people who make fun of those who draw the lines differently from themselves. This is a bad dynamic, especially if yo...

 People go over north to Barret Spur to ski too, no?

Yup. Barret Spur has great skiing though access is a bit protracted.

Good observations, Woz.
Thanks.

Very nice.  I spent a lot of time hiking those trails and exploring those ridges back in college.  Those are fantastic hikes in the summer and fall.  People go over north to Barret Spur to ski too, no?

Ah yes, despite the frigid wind, it really was a wonderful day, even without the boys :)

Pics to come shortly...

~Lara

Way to sniff out the goods, Jess and Lara.
You don't need no stinkin' men, to get in a tour.   ;)
On the the other hand, we need the fem's along to keep our testosterone in check, among other things. ???

Nice report, Jim.
Glad there was still some goods in there for the "bloodhound" in you.
Guess we'll have a "whole new ball game" now with this week's coming weather, eh?

Nice report Jeff.  It's nice to see a report from a seldom visited area on Mt. Hood.  Great pictures as well.  I should probably respond on TTips about the trees, but those look like Hemlocks.  I've spent many days in the Willamette Pass area and Hemlocks are prevalent on that mountain.  The pics are a bit far away, but the trees look very similar.........correct branching, flat needles, similar bark, etc.

That's pretty much the way it's always been, except it was only $5 for the one ride ticket.  The other areas that provide backcountry lift access are all at $10 (or more) now, so I guess I can understand them raising the price.
Probably of greater impact to bc skiers, more than the price increase though, is the reduced operations of C-4 (the Quicksilver lift).  My inquiry on the subject to CM received a response that the mountain manager intends to  only run C-4 when deemed nec...

It was a fun day out. As always when skiing with Chris, the day was full of laughs. Here are a few more pictures:

Chris crosses a stream in the woods.
We had great view of Sperry Peak on the approach.
Chris skis the last pitch fr...

especially when it is used in ski mode for descents

You mean they are not susceptible to my camouflage?

Yeah but why are they trying to kill me?!!  ???

I can't believe I came back from two days of skiing to find that this post is still being discussed.
I happen to know that MW8888888 posts on this site to share conditions with others and his experiences with myself and his other friends across the states. Any other motives you might attribute to them are more reflective of your own state of mind than his.
Thanks for all the good discussion on this. And thanks to Charles for being the voice of reason and keeping this site a comfortable pl...