TR Replies
A friend of mine did this tour on that coooolllldd weekend right after new years (the same day my Vanagon froze up at the Smith Brook parking area while I was on Lichtenberg). Then another ski buddy sent me a link to this awesome web site and there it was again. I've yet to ski Arrowhead. Can someone please give me the beta on parking, getting started in the right direction, etc. Thanks.
Ski on,
Geoff
Ski on,
Geoff
sounds excellent. which one is moonlight bowl?
Nice, Gregg,
I get grins and warm fuzzies floating through knee deep freshies 5 minutes from the car. No, we don't get as many runs as they do in area, but it sure is pleasant, what we do, isn't it?
I get grins and warm fuzzies floating through knee deep freshies 5 minutes from the car. No, we don't get as many runs as they do in area, but it sure is pleasant, what we do, isn't it?
The lazy ski group (Yanna, Dina, and I) found the mank down low too (below maybe 4K), but also found some nicer stuff where sun hadn't hit it. What a great day for exploring a bit - the cover is getting really nice which opens up all sorts of opportunities...
That was fun yesterday. Very enjoyable up high, much less so as we descended into the muck and mank. I'll have to go back to check out the runs you guys did off to the right.
Nice pictures. My neighbor Mike and I mined the east slope of Mt. Hermann yesterday. Fast food powder five minutes from the baker parking lot. The snow was amazingly nice!!! We thought we were in Utah.
The grande boys were taking the big lines on Table. Most of been pretty stable as nothing went. Hope the weather lasts for another good weekend.
The grande boys were taking the big lines on Table. Most of been pretty stable as nothing went. Hope the weather lasts for another good weekend.
hard to put a price on turns when conditions are this good. ;D
Nicely said Snoslut, and as Ron said in reply to your lift serviced riding, "You certainly know how to find the inbound goods at crystal." Good job with staying one step ahead of the crowds. ;)
For sure one of my best days yet but I find myself saying that alot. ;D Yea the resort and it's bc (in some places) sure gets tracks on top of tracks on top of more quickly. Crystal is the mountain with a thousand locals and locals here can be referred to as locusts cause they harvest fresh snow like such. ;)
I caved in this year and purchased an unlimited pass but made my money back within 6 weeks (just before ski/board school starts). Even during those cash strapped seasons where the...
I caved in this year and purchased an unlimited pass but made my money back within 6 weeks (just before ski/board school starts). Even during those cash strapped seasons where the...
It was one of the best days yet! With deep freshies, sunny skies, and new untracked lines everywhere we were like a couple of kids with a quarter in a penny candy store and had our own "super bowl" party in the bc 8)
Looking over towards the lift serviced area at Crystal around 9:00 a.m. and seeing all the freshies already tracked out across the whole mountain, we just shook our heads, smiled and were glad that we were out earning our turns and not paying ($$) for t...
Looking over towards the lift serviced area at Crystal around 9:00 a.m. and seeing all the freshies already tracked out across the whole mountain, we just shook our heads, smiled and were glad that we were out earning our turns and not paying ($$) for t...
Nice pic. Looks like conditions were awesome in southback.
looks good out there can't wait till I can get out there again.
Can't wait for pics! Some day I'll go there by dog/human power via Snow Brushy Ck.
All three links worked for me, xp pro machine. Good turns and air Matthaeus!
The new link seemed to work for me too. Nice skiing Mattaeus! Sunday was a really good day.
mpg didn't work for me on Window XP, real player couldn't recognize the file. the mov worked fine; yes, a wild man!
But...exactly whom did you say Matheus had been watching?
I didn't exactly say, but I know it wasn't me. I did manage to impress my kids though with a 3' jump off a snow-covered pile of logging slash on Monday. I guess that's going to be the start of my big jumping career.
It's good to know that those movies work. Is there anyone out there using a Mac who knows how to successfully edit these digital camera movies? I used Quicktime to brig...
Brent,
Glad to hear you were able to get thru the Trap Door and up to the Attic. We had similar conditions a couple years ago when we were at Powder Creek but avy conditions didn't allow us to get to the Attic.
Zap
Glad to hear you were able to get thru the Trap Door and up to the Attic. We had similar conditions a couple years ago when we were at Powder Creek but avy conditions didn't allow us to get to the Attic.
Zap
Yes a good time again! Thanks Ron for posting my photos. See you soon. JW
I filmed the "Matthaeus Jump" run as well - yours turned out better since I was a hundred feet or so downhill of you. Of course, the "Wild Man Matthaeus" captured him perfectly, as that was the way he skied all day!
Both clips downloaded and played fine on my Mac. But...exactly whom did you say Matheus had been watching? I thought I recognized a faint hint of your own NE 96th Street Couloir go-for-broke technique.
Nice job with the report, Matthaeus! I would only add a couple of stability observations. The snow on the south side of the ridge (as in the photo below) was very ready to slide; this was a lee slope, had been receiving some weak solar effects, and it was easy to start a pillow of the ~12" of snow on top of the solid crust moving with a ski push.
When skiing down the W slope (windward) from the summit, there were some thin (2-4") brittle slabs, but they were small. A little far...
When skiing down the W slope (windward) from the summit, there were some thin (2-4") brittle slabs, but they were small. A little far...
Yeah, it was a good day, even if the PS road crew chose to add extra time into our day for social intercourse and games at Longmire.
As far as pictures go, I think this one of Angus ripping it up is the best shot we got (even if I did take it ;) ):
More pics (including those from Angu...
As far as pictures go, I think this one of Angus ripping it up is the best shot we got (even if I did take it ;) ):
More pics (including those from Angu...
Here's a pic looking at Colchuck Peak from the lake
(waiting for a smaller version...)
(waiting for a smaller version...)
We skied bc off of skyline ridge on Saturday. We encountered near 13" of new snow from the previous several days. ON S/SE aspects this surface layer was easily mobilzed on slopes >30 deg. Long, sustained steep pitches could be hazardous with this type of sloughing. But on the moderate slopes we were skiing, it was quite marvelous. Not quite as light as the snow from a couple weeks ago, but nice, deep powder for sure.
The slab below seems quite stable,...
The slab below seems quite stable,...
Good job, you almost make me feel bad about skiing pow all day at the resort.
Pics should be up sometime this evening or tomorrow morning....
So we had two Skips up on the mountain yesterday. What are the odds of that?
I skinned back to the top of hyak for one more 1K run, which turned out to be great as there was nice soft semi-tracked with good visibility over by the trees on the left edge of the main run. Yanna and Skip just went over the low Hyak shoulder and mostly skied w/o turns in flat light down the mellow trails. I wondered about just dropping down directly to Mill Creek from the bottom of that steep run (where you gu...
I skinned back to the top of hyak for one more 1K run, which turned out to be great as there was nice soft semi-tracked with good visibility over by the trees on the left edge of the main run. Yanna and Skip just went over the low Hyak shoulder and mostly skied w/o turns in flat light down the mellow trails. I wondered about just dropping down directly to Mill Creek from the bottom of that steep run (where you gu...
jim_oker,
We were the party of 4 with Jelly the backcountry dog. I concur with your assessment of the conditions - it was a good day to get out.
As none of us had done it, and as skinning back up to Hyak seemed less than a fun prospect at the time, we thought we'd follow Mill Creek to the lake and take the nordic trail home. I wouldn't recommend it.
We were the party of 4 with Jelly the backcountry dog. I concur with your assessment of the conditions - it was a good day to get out.
As none of us had done it, and as skinning back up to Hyak seemed less than a fun prospect at the time, we thought we'd follow Mill Creek to the lake and take the nordic trail home. I wouldn't recommend it.
Nice ;D I think that route has the potential to be one of the classics in washington. Glad to here everything turned out well for you considering the avi...
Yeah, I was one of the three. We were just squeezing in a pre-work lap. I know Hyak was groomed and ran the lifts on monday for MLK day. I was sort of hoping things had softened up, but no dice. I'm glad there were good turns to be had.
snoslut, thanks again for the input on the splitboards. :)
And I've rarely seen many people out that way, even on weekends. Nice report.
Nice photos from the Roger's Pass area! You guy's seemed to have much better weather for views than when I was in the Revelstoke area on the 14th...I think most of that 40 cm over the crust fell over the night of the 13th (the snow was absolutely dumping down at Roger's Pass that night while I was driving to Revelstoke). The Selkirks are definitely where the B.C. powder is at lately (the Purcells and Rockies to the east only received a trace-to- ~4 cm of new snow from that storm).
Hey Mark, you would have fit in well with this group. Heading out Sat. with my son. Looks like both days may be good for turns.
Sorry about the weird letters and numbers in my report. I downloaded to this site from a disk and the ' and " came out with the weird numbers thing.
I think that B'ham Mike has some pictures to post as well. I forgot the camera.
Sorry about the weird letters and numbers in my report. I downloaded to this site from a disk and the ' and " came out with the weird numbers thing.
I think that B'ham Mike has some pictures to post as well. I forgot the camera.
Hey Pakman I couldn't feel a difference between the way the two rode...even in crustier snow and soft avi debris. Only thing was on my first run I had to get use to a more centered stance (didn't want to tinker with it) and longer board (162 to 166). Also I still have not tried the Voile yet. I was referring to Sag and the easy time he had on his. The Voile looked so much easier to put together than the Burton. And yes you will have less weight in your pack cause it's on your feet. 8)
Good reporting, Gregg and Mike. Sounds like you were well-matched: 5000 feet, then 7000, then 5000 followed by a long drive home. Glad I had business elsewhere.
Sunday this weekend?
(edit to remove extraneous photo)
Sunday this weekend?
(edit to remove extraneous photo)
snoslut, nice trip report. How did you find the splitboard on the ride down vs your standard board? How was it on the crustier snow... I'm tempted to pull the trigger this season and get the voile. Just trying to justify the price... I see you have tried a voile as well. Was the Burton that much more of a pain to put together than the Voile?
Tired of snowshoeing and figure spitboard = less weight on the pack...
Tired of snowshoeing and figure spitboard = less weight on the pack...
not a big fan of telling folks about trips but i had such a great time with this crew.
however, i would not consider myself a hip swinger and the coleman propane stove grilled chicken was fantastic.
even if it had the hotel guests racing to the diner only to be disappointed with the mad chipped beef on toast that they were serving.
i sent the boys a link to some of the photos, so here it is for those that are interested.
http://photos.yahoo.com/michaelroupp
however, i would not consider myself a hip swinger and the coleman propane stove grilled chicken was fantastic.
even if it had the hotel guests racing to the diner only to be disappointed with the mad chipped beef on toast that they were serving.
i sent the boys a link to some of the photos, so here it is for those that are interested.
http://photos.yahoo.com/michaelroupp
We skinned up to Muir yesterday for a workout and some crystal clear views. There were some natural and skier triggered sluffs from Monday in the most recent snow near Pan Point and on other steep slopes. We did hear and then see a large serac break off on the Nisqually icefall. Breakable crust topped just about everything that had been heated by the sun on Monday. This softened once heated by the sun. The Muir snowfield varied between pockets of a few inches of win...
Silas,
Good call. I'll be there next month at the Ymi Yurts and hopefully more snorkel type conditions.
Zap
Good call. I'll be there next month at the Ymi Yurts and hopefully more snorkel type conditions.
Zap
that wasn't me, thats what hero snow smells like ;)
We'd best enjoy the backcountry skiing in the Hogback basin now. The White Pass Company has hatched a new expansion plan that roughly doubles their permit area, including two new lifts, 15 runs and a mid-mountain lodge, all within the Hogback basin. The Forest Service seems eager to go forward. Only a successful lawsuit challenging a similar expansion stopped them a few years ago.
We had a good opportunity to compare the effectiveness of skin wax to untreated skins to silicone spray. Russ seemed to fare well in terms of snow sticking with the spray (though he also slipped out on the hard surface several times, as he noted), Skip had freshly waxed skins and was walking the high white heels at many points, and pretty much the same for me with skins that had not treatment since late last season. Yanna's skins were largely untreated and had some sticking but not quite as bad...
Definitely a day when those seldomly used ski crampons would have come in handy. I fell more times on the way up than I did on the way down!
Man - I've got to party with you guys some time! Great photo!
My version of events:
http://staff.washington.edu/skykilo/CrookedSlot/CrookedSlot.html
Is a rope necessary to enter the Slot Couloir?
Hint: Jason never takes the easiest way.
Finally, a public safety announcement:
Never ski under the influence of a Hummel.
http://staff.washington.edu/skykilo/CrookedSlot/CrookedSlot.html
Is a rope necessary to enter the Slot Couloir?
Hint: Jason never takes the easiest way.
Finally, a public safety announcement:
Never ski under the influence of a Hummel.