TR Replies

Nice report!  How about a photo?  

I know you've got one....     ;)

I'll check with Andy about getting you those images. Although he's an intermediate student, and therefore might be a bit surly and stubborn. ;D  When do you need them?

Nice photos and video Sam.  That area sure is beautiful isn't it?  One of the nicest around I think.  We wanted to ski that line on Klawatti last spring when we were up there, but it had already melted out.  Looks like you got it good.

Just now getting back. I'm glad parties in both spots made it back safer and wiser.
A Pound, I'd Like to use the photos in mountaineers avy class if I could. They are both great examples of wind loading around a ridge.

The hut was fine.  Stove worked OK.

We did not dig pits. There was an inch crust and you could pole down a couple feet to the hard layer.

I had followed the avy reports that week and yes, I did monitor the telemetry reports and noted the extremely high winds.

I knew the east slopes were loaded, but the party discussed a west descent, which was wind blown of course, and we concluded the top of the east slope wasn't as wind deposited because of the tree barrier along the ridge.

Hindsight, we should not have ski...

Good call.  I suspect the road's already cleared past where you would have come out.  Would have been a walk out to CM Blvd.

James I am curious to find out how snow conditions were below Kempers?  Did you have to negotiate any sketchy terrain to get back to 410?

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.  ...