TR Replies

How about Bernard's Boulders??

The three previous photos are courtesy of Andy Pound, who lived to tell the tale.

Another view a bit lower.

That's a great picture, Greg.

So now you know why you had it all to yourselves.

This is making my $47 tab at the lifts across Hwy 2 seem more worthwhile. I was really tempted to head up and over there, but...

Stevens Pass had it's own "whoomps" but they were from this huge Car Toys tractor trailer full of subwoofers.  Not exactly a wilderness experience, but a beautiful day with great powder in the trees and windpacked on the open.

Thanks for sharing your thought processes openly, guys! This is good reading material.

I'm reminded of comments I heard many years back in Avy Level I training about group dynamics (e.g. make your own calls, pay attention to the worriers in the group, that sort of stuff), as well as about paying attention to all the factors (including whoomphing in particular - something they mentioned much more strongly in my CO class than in the one I took with Gary Brill not far from where you guys we...

Where exactly is Moonlight Bowl?  Is this the sparsely treed bowl just east of the pass and above the highway across from Yodelin?  The lower reaches above the flat PCT are cloaked with slide alder and dense forest?

What was the weather like?  If this is the bowl I am thinking of, that area will tend to get heated in the slightest sunbreak of which there were a few Saturday near Snoqualmie Pass.  I'm wondering if slight daytime heating consolidated the new snow into a...

We skied the south slope, then into moonlight bowl and skied the far skiers right of the bowl, that starts in the trees (not quite yet in the full open, but fairly steep at the start).  Then we did the run with the slide, and then two more runs from where the trees start to get denser and the slope flattens to 20 degrees or so (about 400-500ft below the ridge top) down to near the PCT.

The conversations in our group were interesting, and there was definite disagreement on assumption...

there are definitely some lower angle lines in moonlight bowl.  my main concern would be on some of the steeper sections directly below the ridge...these are more or less unavoidable if you ski off the top.  i ski there often, and based on what i was seeing in the trees there on friday, i would have avoided moonlight bowl altogether probably.  glad you guys had a good day though and it all worked out.  

Great information.  I don't think the snowpack was quite as bad up at the Baker backcountry (Sat).  My stepson and I heard a few whoomps on some wind loaded areas heading up to the saddle.  We stuck to the trees heading south from Hermann Saddle and found fairly good skiing.  Tim and friends dug a pit and skied the Core shoot gully.   There was quite a bit of new snow but it was definately safe to ski on the south facing slopes in the trees.  Yesterday's warm temp a...

Guess I was wrong, there was someone here crazy enough to ski the BC this weekend.

OT:  So this is my first year interpreting forecasts--Are we looking at some corn skiing this week?  Will "partly cloudy" be enough to soften things up?

You gotta have good conditions in the trees for this one, which tends to mean a decent and recent dump of snow. I'm guessing the trees you encountered were either tree bombed, tree peed, or both, even if they had a small bit of powder on top.

I use T3s, early model (so-called "brown", not the newer black T3s). I've got 3-pin+cable bindings on the skis but will most likely never take the cables along (never did with my Catamounts). Without the cables, the setup is pretty light but performed nicely.

Funny - looks like everyone has the same ideas.  After a grim day at Snoqualmie Saturday I thought I would try Crystal b/c of the higher elevations.  But that thought was fleeting and I tried another area [which shall remain nameless] and that held very nice powder.  I guess I'm glad I avoided Crystal!

Yeah I think I recognize that aspect. This is the slope into Union aiming at those small glades at the valley base, starting from the peak to lookers R of the low col on BB, right? The big party hit this slope and wasn't so hot at conserving the snow resource, they were all spread out and crisscrossing, so after we went down it once and saw them go down it in this manner we kind of gave up on the slope even tho it seemed possible (and you've confirmed) that there would have been lines in there i...

Tlt Bindings:  spraying them helps.  I also carry a small pocket knive for sticking in the pocket to break up the snow that compacts there under certain conditions.  Having it in a pants pocket makes it quickly accessable.

Thanks, Wolfs.  I know how difficult it is to knock out a TR the same night you get home, but it is certainly helpful for us Sunday skiers to get some first hand info from the day before.  We DO appreciate it.

Sounds maybe like you were up in the BB area, eh?

As for your dynafit "snow under the toepiece crossbar" irritant, before you leave on a tour, just spray some slippery stuff in that little pocket (i usually use silicone) under the toepiece crossbar.  ...

Phil, here's a shot of Aix, or at least that part of Nelson Ridge that leads to Aix:



Just looking at Green Trails, there are a few chutes that reach clear to the valley floor, and that was also my impression although I did not scout it out as well as should be done.

thanks to all of you for your help and tips. They definately made my transition smoother, and Daryl your tips came into play the next day as I skied alot more and your right let em run a little and they turn alot nicer they are telly skis after all.

Hey wow - I was doing my training run up Hyak on friday when a jet fighter flew over the ridge, proceeded BELOW ME up Gold Creek in a haze of his own jet exhaust and pulled up in a dramatic fashion at the face of Chikamin, shadow on the face of the mountain and all.  For a moment I thought I was going to see this guy buy it.  What a sight.

Guess we know how the fly boys get their kicks!

Maybe he was looking for a new personal discovery zone!...

Thanks, Darryl.
And I thought your tips were GREAT!
I'm gonna work some more on them this next Sunday!

Very cool trip, Greg.
Thanks for sharing it.

Jerry and Ron - great photos!!  I'm standing up in all of them.  It was a fun trip!  I think if I wouldn't have confused Stefan (and myself) with all the telemark tips, he would have skied even better than he did.

Seems like bc skiing is a virtual plethora of firsts.  Even if you did the same route every day the conditions change so much day to day that each tour's totally unique.  Then when you add to the mix, a boarder (who has NEVER skied) that goes back to the car to get his new skis to ski with you, it's quite memorable, eh?
Well done, Stefan.
And to add to that, We had a virtual smorgasboard of snow conditions... albiet all skiable.  Here's one of JW having his way with the sast...

Wow.... those guys were obviously serious hard men!  Did they travel on skins, or just run up the peaks?

I think they used wax. The gear they used was, I think, similar to what in the 1970s was considered heavy duty Nordic gear, but today would be considered way too flimsy by most backcountry skiers.  Here's a picture that I found in the Mountaineers dungeon (at the clubhouse) that I believe depicts Sigurd Hall at the end of the Patrol Race...