TR Replies

Thanks for sharing the pics. I'm curious what time and roughly where this happened?

I'm sure we were taking non-zero risks ourselves, but I was for sure not excited about getting on or beneath anything very steep based on how the snow felt and what had already come down in a few spots (such as the shot six crown mentioned by Charlie), though we did follow the route of the cat track for a little ways (which was just hillside as of yesterday) which cuts below Shot Six etc, an...

12/8/15 11:58am

P_Buddy

Wow, thanks for sharing both the trip report and slide story.

12/8/15 11:18am

Griff

^^^^^^Lucky^^^^^^^

12/8/15 3:42am

SeatownSlackey

December 5, 2015, Grassy Mountain, Manning Park

Slide @ alpy was me. Whole host of mistakes led up to it but for everyone else's benefit, it was skier triggered, (climbing). Crown was 45-50' wide and face varied between 18-24" (all of the recent storm snow) and ran 250-300'. Triggered the slide from the lower right of the pic.
Bed surface was a thin layer of frost/hoar on rock.

I was Pinned and partially buried against a tree but had one arm free to clear the snow away from my head and face and even...

12/8/15 3:33am

Zap

Great trip report and videos. ;)

12/8/15 3:16am

lolob

December 6, Stevens Southback

RossMac, here is a grainy photo of the slab you kicked off (I think that's the one you mentioned). We also saw a slab that had already released on the way up Double Diamond (see picture below). We did two compression tests around 4400 feet on the backside that failed when isolating the column down 75 (CTV SPQ1). You don't see that too often in the PNW. Definitely touchy conditions out there yesterday.

12/7/15 10:40pm

myikat

December 6, 2015, Mission Peak

Wish I had chosen your path instead of riding the lifts. Great shots.

12/7/15 2:23pm

mikerolfs

because a picture is worth a thousand words;

Shooting cracks:

the crust layer (our isolated block slid on the layer UNDER the crust). There was enough water in the mushy layer under the crust to squeeze it into a slush ball.

remotely triggered feature:

12/7/15 2:04pm

Rowan Stewart

Fantastic photos as usual. The light was magical out there yesterday. I toured up East peak by myself, then met up with Erik and Mike who had put in the skin track. (Thanks!) I dug a quick pit on a sw facing slope just below the summit of east, and found a faceted sugary layer beneath a crust with 2+ feet of heavy fresh snow on top. The layer wasn't very reactive, but we did hear/feel some huge whumphs of settlement. We kicked off a ~ 500 lb cornice chunk which produced no result on an NE a...

12/7/15 12:53pm

cchapin

Thanks for the info! We were very curious what ski patrol and all the artillery found.

12/7/15 11:40am

Jim Oker

December 6, Stevens Southback

Jackal and I did one lazy lap up to the gun mount at Alpental, from about 11:30-2:30. Definitely heavy snow, and pole probes showed varying degrees of multiple low density layers down a bit. Lots of hollow spots around brush - typical early season fun. But we experienced no whumpfing. I was not interested, however, in skiing any steeper slopes - seemed too funky to risk it. I did cut across one very short (10-15 feet tall?) 35-ish degree slope where I felt the snow moving as I cut across, but wh...

12/7/15 9:41am

kciari

author=RossMac link=topic=34987.msg143624#msg143624 date=1449499230]
When we skinned back out, Patrol told us that they had heard a report of a burial in Corona Bowl, so had closed the area.

Wow, really scary. Thanks for the update.

I also headed up there yesterday. We left at 6:30am, got the 2nd to last parking spot in the super-close lot by 8:10am, and were skinning by 8:30am. Went up and over the Big Chief + Do...

12/7/15 9:37am

tabski

December 5, 2015, Grassy Mountain, Manning Park

Thanks for the report!

I was riding lifts at x-tal. First day of the season for Chinook, Rex, Queen and High Campbell. Sure was an impressive storm. Zero to hero. Surrounding peak like Silver King were very rocky a few days ago; on Sunday they were completely plastered. In-bounds control work produced substantial slab avalanches on N through E slopes.

12/7/15 8:10am

Rowan Stewart

Looks like awesome conditions! Thanks for the report.

12/7/15 7:23am

ron j

December 6, Stevens Southback

Nice trip, Radka and Chris.
Sweet Report, Radka, great pics as usual.

12/7/15 4:24am

RossMac

Also did a lap on the backside after riding lifts on the front for much of the morning. Remotely triggered a 1 1/2 foot crown on a convex face under the power lines near Gemini. Skiing was heavy but fun. When we skinned back out, Patrol told us that they had heard a report of a burial in Corona Bowl, so had closed the area.

12/7/15 4:05am

pipedream

Sounds like a spooky day out there. Someone got caught in a slide on the backside of Stevens, leading to a chaotic diversion of resources that way mid-morning. Last I heard the party was able to self-extricate without injury.

As for avalanche potential at Summit Central, a few seasons ago a resort skier triggered a slide in the trees between Parachute and the main Triple 60 face. Victim was only partially buried but ops stopped loading the chair immediately and shut it down as soon as...

12/7/15 3:54am

Charlie Hagedorn

Parts of Central are steep enough to slide, see Hillmap/Caltopo/Google map below.

I saw Susan drop a bit with the most impressive whumph we encountered. I've felt similar collapses before, but never observed a partner move.

Opening-wise, I suspect they're waiting until after this week's big warmup.

On the TGR forum, there's a photo of a person-involved

12/7/15 3:14am

Griff

Don't know that I have ever heard a snowpack whumph more than today. Almost every other step as my daughter and I climbed up Parachute at Ski Acres. If not for being in such mellow terrain, we would not have ben out there at all.

That said, I chatted with the guy who set the track about the big crack that covered a third of the face. He was below it when it cracked and settled. Didn't move.

The ski, well, it was one of the best runs ever down ol' Parachute. O...

12/7/15 3:13am

Charlie Hagedorn

author=jakedouglas link=topic=34986.msg143608#msg143608 date=1449441150]Nice to go skiing without a 3 hour drive for a change.

Amen.

12/7/15 2:50am

jakedouglas

Good coverage at West, probably 12" of new when I showed up around 7 and it kept falling. Heavy turned to sticky turned to nearly soup at the bottom by late morning. Nice to go skiing without a 3 hour drive for a change.

12/7/15 2:48am

Charlie Hagedorn

December 5, 2015, Hyak

Thanks!

12/7/15 2:41am

Tundra X

How far would one make it up the Deadhorse road if one was not happening to be skiing with Conrad from AK who has a badass truck but was instead with John Doe from the lower 48 with a plain jane truck?

12/7/15 2:13am

Jason4

Nov 29, 2015, PSA - North slopes not so good

There isn't much point in pushing through the washout as it's only a 5 minute walk to where the road is blocked by a wet slide from the washout. It looks like some red paint was left behind on the gravel when someone drove back out.

12/7/15 1:39am

pipedream

NWAC telemetry indicates WA pass has picked-up 14" in the last 24 hours and not at particularly warm temperatures, either. Be careful out there!

12/6/15 11:05pm

snoholic

December 3, 2015, Rock Mtn and Stevens Pass

I've skied rock a few times in the last week or so. There is good coverage once you get past the switchbacks ;). But I agree, the price of entry is high.

12/6/15 10:40pm

Rowan Stewart

there is a shot of the washout at the end of the video that should give you some idea.

12/6/15 12:03pm

caverpilot

I'm with cascadekid- this site does kind of suck to use; no disrespect- when the site was created, I'm sure the look, feel and technology were current. However, let's be honest, this site looks like a 1999 AOL page.... Let's just say it is "dated." There's lots of free, new, robust and current forum software available, the most obvious being phpBB. WordPress is also free and 100% customizable. I'd love to see this site overhauled at some point to incorpora...

12/6/15 8:18am

Skier of the Hood

Although it is easy to link to images off the site I think there is a strong argument for getting more storage. If you look back at old TRs those with broken links to old images have little value. Those that choose to use the sites attachment system on the other hand are like twenty dollar bills you find in an old pair of jeans. That is why I use the sites attachment system even though I could also show off with my pretty linked photos:

12/6/15 7:57am

Edgesport

December 1, 2015, Scottish Lakes High Camp

author=pipedream link=topic=34848.msg143240#msg143240 date=1448178486]
1. Point your browser to http://www.imgur.com (if you're on a mobile device, imgur offers an app for all platforms)
2. Upload your photos there, you don't even need an account
3. For each image you want to share, put it inside a pair of img tags: /> e.g.

Always appreciat...

12/6/15 6:43am

glenn_b

Remembering back to late March 1980 when Bill Hopkins and I blundered into Peg and Bill Stark's operation just below McCue Ridge. Came out after a few days to hear about increasing activity on Mt St Helens, leading to the big event on May 18. He went to work for them while I was comfortably ensconced with a girlfriend back in Ellensburg. Seems like a long time ago.

12/6/15 6:32am

wcurchin

December 2, 2015, Summit West!

Kam, that's be a damn fine day at MRG. Headed up manana to take a peek for myself

12/5/15 11:29pm

wcurchin

Hell yea! Anything at the summit is good news.

12/3/15 10:33pm

wcurchin

December 2, 2015, Summit West!

I'm pretty sure it's a western kid's truck. Wouldn't be too hard with something to push the snow up there and a winch.
Got any pics of the twin lakes wash out? Wondering if my 4runner could make it.

12/3/15 8:37pm

Peels

Thanks Charlie! Hope to get out with you soon! :-)

12/3/15 4:29pm

Charlie Hagedorn

December 2, 2015, Summit West!

Congrats! Gotta go to know!

12/3/15 1:41pm

skibacks

Eww! Chewy outrun. Good work gettin' out there

12/3/15 1:56am

swaterfall

Thumbs Up : Retweet : Smiley Face

12/2/15 3:42pm

cascadekid

June 7, 2015, Dalvik, Northern Iceland

Or, update the site.

12/2/15 1:48pm

cascadekid

Yeah sure, just shoot me an email through my website contact form (keeps the spam down)

12/2/15 12:59pm

tabski

12/2/15 12:37pm

kamtron