TR Replies
Yikes! I'm heading there tomorrow. Hoping for a miracle.
Hi there, I'm thinking of heading up there this weekend. I've never toured there, however. Can you recommend any resources for information? Any camping or couch-surfing tips? Other advice? Looking for mellow touring for a few days -- mostly exploratory and relaxed turns.
Cheers,
Kate
Cheers,
Kate
Thanks for this tr...got a make it up there!!!
author=avajane link=topic=33965.msg140258#msg140258 date=1427084590]
Cool. I'm not familiar with the back bowls either, but I'd guess that there was probably some more wind blown snow over there. Did you climb back out or ski down and over to the road?
Almost everyone climbs back out over Mazama Ridge. Skiing "...down and over to the road" from the Mazama 'Back Bowl' takes an exceptional snowpack. To...
I would have been guilty of the same indignation. This rather cheery discussion catches my mind another way somehow. Here we are affected by this low snow year and fewer places for ever more people to go play in our beloved untouched snow. Makes me grateful I'm not a Californian hotly debating water usage rights as this summer's fire season approaches. We will enjoy relative normalcy next year sans persistent upper ridge, but this may be the year that brings tha...
author=Andrew Carey link=topic=33965.msg140282#msg140282 date=1427157711]
We skied Mazama today with some nice fresh snow--but not nearly enough to cover the frozen ski trenches (made in later afteroon soft snow), deep post-holing cattle tracks, 10 feet wide, looking like a roto-tilled garden, ski and snowshoe uptracks, and the full variety of other disturbances like "practice" snow pits in the most inappropriate places (not indicative of anything bu...
We skied Mazama today with some nice fresh snow--but not nearly enough to cover the frozen ski trenches (made in later afteroon soft snow), deep post-holing cattle tracks, 10 feet wide, looking like a roto-tilled garden, ski and snowshoe uptracks, and the full variety of other disturbances like "practice" snow pits in the most inappropriate places (not indicative of anything but a big surprise to a fast moving skier), shoveled out tent pads, and maybe camp kitchens. The whole pla...
Perhaps compaction for a horizontal sidehill slalom snowshoe race.
Maybe is was snow compaction for avalanche mitigation? :D
Not the biggest deal in the world of backcountry skiing and Norseman is probably right that close in is better than way out there - but I do have a point here and it's not childish. At nordic ski areas they have a skating lane, a trad track, and a separate trail altogether for snow shoeing. Near snowmobile land they often put in nordic trails that they "try" to keep separate. When there are user groups whose users conflict with each other - and they are all in the same place...
Settle down now y'all.
Jane, would you rather have encountered trampled slopes elsewhere? I consider the instructors courteous for keeping their groups close to the parking lot.
Jane, would you rather have encountered trampled slopes elsewhere? I consider the instructors courteous for keeping their groups close to the parking lot.
I only see one poster name calling here which is quite possibly the definition of childish......
I'm sorry, but that is a remarkably childish thing to say. And thank you for your trip report!
On a side not.....
Just a few minutes out of the parkinglot and right before the bridge over the creek, we spied a nice fresh slope above us and decided to ski it as the visibility was good. We skinned up about halfway to the top of this little knoll, and were stopped in our tracks by what we now saw as the upper slope. The fresh snow had been utterly destroyed by what must have been dozens of snowshoers in a training exercise designed to piss off skiers and riders. They had gone up a...
Just a few minutes out of the parkinglot and right before the bridge over the creek, we spied a nice fresh slope above us and decided to ski it as the visibility was good. We skinned up about halfway to the top of this little knoll, and were stopped in our tracks by what we now saw as the upper slope. The fresh snow had been utterly destroyed by what must have been dozens of snowshoers in a training exercise designed to piss off skiers and riders. They had gone up a...
author=dkoelle link=topic=33965.msg140256#msg140256 date=1427079936]
My first time in back bowls on I guess NE to E side of upper Mazama ridge. Really great! I also did not feel invited to go above Panorama Point in the incipient white-out.
Cool. I'm not familiar with the back bowls either, but I'd guess that there was probably some more wind blown snow over there. Did you climb back out or ski down and over to the roa...
Thanks for the Kootenay report, glad to hear you had good skiing, that is a fun spot.
My first time in back bowls on I guess NE to E side of upper Mazama ridge. Really great! I also did not feel invited to go above Panorama Point in the incipient white-out.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10205410184351735&l=8213549960197507583
Proof of minor powder down low
Proof of minor powder down low
"Bad-ass ski family bares all during evacuation" 8)
Thanks for the report. Note that the NWAC telemetry is on PST year-round, so the max wind speed atop Magic Mile was only 28 mph during the hour prior to 1400 PDT (1300 PST on the telemetry). But more relevant to figuring out the winds atop Hood would be the data from Camp Muir at 10100 ft on Rainier, which shows winds rapidly increasing towards 100 mph during that hour, and gusting over 100 mph for the next several hours:
Northwest Avalanche Center N...
Northwest Avalanche Center N...
Thanks for the report and all the photos! I love the Chiwaukums!
Hi,
thanks for all the comments and suggestions!
John Green - I don't really end up with a shapefile that would be useful to share (or sell). Rather, I end up with a collection of rasters, and shapefiles in my GIS and then the final product is really just the georeferenced image that I export. However, if you're a gis'er, here is the source data for the LiDAR. You'd be able to recreate maps for your own trips quite easily (in GIS soft...
thanks for all the comments and suggestions!
John Green - I don't really end up with a shapefile that would be useful to share (or sell). Rather, I end up with a collection of rasters, and shapefiles in my GIS and then the final product is really just the georeferenced image that I export. However, if you're a gis'er, here is the source data for the LiDAR. You'd be able to recreate maps for your own trips quite easily (in GIS soft...
If I recall correctly, Volant's first powder ski was the "Chubb".
Maybe around 4500'. In average snow year, you can easily follow a wide gully down to a meadow at 3500'. that would be about 3000' of nearly fall line skiing!
Nice report! There's some elbow room out there, lots of miles, and long days.
There's more to skiing than powder...
There's more to skiing than powder...
Andy is really taking his analogies to the next level these days! Nice TR
Great huts, but no pow terrain flatter than I thought for around there. Interesting.
If you're talking about the first batch of pictures (the scenic), the peak behind Tom is Cape Horn with Ladies Pass down in the low spot between the summit and Tom. Grindstone is behind Cape Horn and might be (??) the farther peak showing on the right skyline of Cape Horn.
Is that Grindestone in that second picture of Tom?
I did not take my new skis, I was a little worried about durability so I stuck with my factory skis, but I was sure wishing I had taken them by the time I finished.
author=Charlie Hagedorn link=topic=33791.msg139772#msg139772 date=1425523774]
Yep. Didn't hit skiable snow until 5360'.
Not sure which direction you're coming from, but Adams looked mighty good from afar. Don't know about the road access, though.
So, I have a trip planned to meet some friends at St. Helens in a week and a half. I would imagine the top is in great shape. Anyone tried this recently...
You keep going Big like this I might be heading up there. Skied this area once, but those crevasses were more covered up and better bridged and it was also some nice +8 like you skied. However, crevasses give me the eeby jeebies.
Nice Vid. So far these two posts by you are the best of the year.
Nice Vid. So far these two posts by you are the best of the year.
Man, Saign and I were ready to call it until it went blue for the afternoon. Wind was howling at Cowlitz gap.
Were you skiing any of the homemade boards? How did they perform?
We missed not having you along, Jamie and wondered how you were doing on Rainier as we looked your way from the summit (see photo). As you're probably aware, I overstated the travel vs. turning element for the purposes of entertainment... we did have six or seven most-excellent turns (more photos). As you indicate, the fun and efficiency of skiing snow-covered slopes in winter vs. walking over stones and talus in summer is immense.
Well done and your other work on your channel is worth the look as well.
Nice going Andy/Tom,13 hours, that's why I try and stay away from you guys when you plan a trip! As much traversing as you did, it's better on skis,than the endless bolder hopping that it takes to do this trip in the summer. Hope you had a few good turns. Thanks for the great pictures.
Nice - thank you.
Looks like a long trip through places worth visiting. Wish the East side had more snow this year.
Looks like a long trip through places worth visiting. Wish the East side had more snow this year.
Nice,
I want to go jump off stuff into pow!!!!
I want to go jump off stuff into pow!!!!
Good to see evidence of powder, thanks for the stoke!