Thread: Wasatch 08-09 Conditions

Originally Posted by Skidog

Went out to the Birthdays yesterday. Skied the "first" most NW facing birthday chute. 2nd skier in 3rd turn set off a wind slab and got taken for a ride.

http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/photos...teenkiste.web/

everyone was ok. little "wake up" call.

Otherwise the skiing was great...soft, deep and tasty...

The site says: "Skiers who leave ski resorts to venture into the backcountry only occasionally are at greater risk of triggering avalanches as they are often not as versed at assessing backcountry snowpack conditions."

Interesting. Glad to hear everyone was alright. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the snowpack the next couple of days. Be safe out there.

Originally Posted by ruletherock

The site says: "Skiers who leave ski resorts to venture into the backcountry only occasionally are at greater risk of triggering avalanches as they are often not as versed at assessing backcountry snowpack conditions."

Interesting. Glad to hear everyone was alright. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the snowpack the next couple of days. Be safe out there.

Yeah I was a little miffed at that generalization. We are all pretty versed in the BC, not experts by any means, but know enough.

Was a scary situation that turned out ok....the spot that slid was certainly more N facing than the rest of the chute, but by no means gave us huge concern, guess we were wrong.

It will be interesting to see what the new snow does.

As mentioned BE SAFE OUT THERE!!!!!!

oh yea, its nuking tho

Skidog, how did you get to the birthdays, out Snowbird's Gad2 gate or White Pine trailhead? The avy report implies that you exited the resort but when I looked at their website, it said that touring was closed.

First stoke post ever, mostly scenic shots since all my actions pics turned out shitty. Nothing to write home about I guess but you gotta start somewhere...

Late Saturday start on the White Pine highway:


The objective (assuming the stars were lined right, which they were not): Lake Peak


Some weather started chasing us about an hour in:


And creeped up steadily behind us:


The east chute of Lake Peak was completely sluffed out so we opted for Red Baldy. A couple of peeps were putting a track straight up the lower apron, steep enough to make me uneasy so we shoot for the ridge with the intention of following it to the top. 200' from the ridge the weather made a sudden bitchy move and things started looking a bit grim:


Then grimmer:


Then my fingers froze and the camera stayed in. Lots of wind on the ridge, blowing snow, zero visibility, back the way we came.

After a couple of laps on short shots around the lake, we skied some great snow on the way out although the birds had milked the area pretty ruthlessly.


Fun was had by all.

Played it safe and went up Reynolds today in the early afternoon. There was already 3-4” inches at the trailhead but no wind and no instabilities but, for obvious reasons, carefully avoided any wind affected areas. For a short time, it was bottomless hero pow… the kind that begs for mach loony skiing, the light and dry powder that makes skiing in Utah what it is.

As the day progressed, the snow came in wetter and heavier—almost sleet, at times—and then the wind started blowing hard after 3:00PM while at the same time the sheer accumulation of snow made it easy to trigger slow moving sluffs even on moderately steep (blue) slopes. This last part took place on the way out… nobody was sticking around to see how it played out. In any event, it’s puking in the Wasatch.

On a side note, last week I caught a ride back to the car in BCC and left a pair of Black Diamond Traverse Ski Poles in the bed of a truck. The dude was a Brighton snowboard instructor (giving credit where credit is due, Brighton snowboarders are always generous about stopping) driving a red Toyota crew cab pickup. If anyone knows this guy and he feels like returning the poles, then I can offer a reward to show my appreciation since the things seem to be sold out locally.

Originally Posted by ePiech

On a side note, last week I caught a ride back to the car in BCC and left a pair of Black Diamond Traverse Ski Poles in the bed of a truck. The dude was a Brighton snowboard instructor (giving credit where credit is due, Brighton snowboarders are always generous about stopping) driving a red Toyota crew cab pickup. If anyone knows this guy and he feels like returning the poles, then I can offer a reward to show my appreciation since the things seem to be sold out locally.

If you don't get them back, the Black Diamond store still had some in yesterday

saturday: saw a random trail in the snow to follow



rule the rock showed us the way


to some of this


and this


and even this


SFB, mrs SFB, sfotex and tri-U were also present but too quick and sneaky to be photographed. A shame because a great crew to be out in the mtns with...

sunday mrs MT and I got a bit of a late start before heading up silver fork

we looked to the E and some wet slide instability


so looked to the west and noted some cool wind slabbage


is this what it means to shoot crack?


but splitting the difference rewarded us with a bit of soft safe sind buff on the N face...

Today, we went up the upper East Forks in BCC. Dropped a small cornice without any sign of instability and other than gusting wind & lots of wind loading along the ridgelines there was little to report other than another best day of the year:


Then, skied a heavily forested & sheltered—albeit steep—north facing slope and triggered a small soft slab slide (only the new snow slid & not deep enough to bury a person) that was thirty yards wide and ran seventy yards down to the bottom of the slope. Unfortunately, the pictures didn’t turn out that well:


It seems as though the UAC advisory that bumped up the danger from this morning is accurate; there’s lots of wind but, on a positive note, also lots of sun and the temps remained in the 20s throughout the day.

A few photos from today











Tips up.

WRA,

The 1st and the 2nd to last are $$$

My obs from ob: Spun a post alpenglow dusk patrol with Otter tonight. Skied straight south facing Davenport ramp back to the upper Alta lot. Obvious naturals during the recent storm (most likely during last night's snow) + loading from the mostly West winds (including cross). No hard wind slabs encountered; only super minor soft wind slabs. Skiing was still very, very good (as in up in the grill good) past sunset tonight on straight South Facing slopes.

My thoughts are that it was so f'ing cold today that the temps "seized up" everything. Tomorrow will be the day to be careful as the temps are forecasted to heat up and there is (and still felt at times) the hard crust about 18" down for any water to percolate on if enough warming happens to put some water on the crust layer.

Take care tomorrow my fellow bc travelers.

Originally Posted by Bud Green

Skidog, how did you get to the birthdays, out Snowbird's Gad2 gate or White Pine trailhead? The avy report implies that you exited the resort but when I looked at their website, it said that touring was closed.

We DID exit the Gad2 gate. It was open for only a short time in the morning on Sunday. We check in with partol, we all had gear and plenty of knowledge in the group. Just one of those things I guess.

I'm guessing from the wizzards pics some kick ass riding conditions were both had and observed
After a few EGP laps at sorrydude headed out to sillyfork. Not a lot of people out 2 tracks in west bowl and a dozen meadow skipper tracks.
S facing michigan city had some wind funk to it and cornices on the davenport ridge were numerous, large and sensitve. Out of wind effected areas was well bonded and $$$
Some goat fuck piss poor edited helmie footy manged to snag a pole on shrubery twice on the davenport run

Yesterday was nice! 2-3 feet deep. A little windjacked, but still skiable. Almost puked at one point.

Had a nice tour today. Limited wind, nice temps, no angry people, lotsa smiles, and good snow. No instabilities to speak of. Old natural slide running on north aspects below Dromedary, otherwise quiet.

^^^ Lots of sweet pics and cam on this page... sooo much stoke! Went up this afternoon too and the pow is still in pretty good shape; expected cement in exposed areas and got corn instead, plus, sheltered areas are still deep. The high March sun is merciless, though.

Wow, guys, y'all must be burnt out on snow or something. Driving down the canyon at 12:30pm today there wasn't a single track down everyone's favorite roadside attraction, just the boot up (the party who skied coalpit?). We were strongly tempted to pull over give'r but work was calling.

West facing above 10k felt a little variable with windboarded pillows mixed in with lots of otherwise nice boot top deep schussing.

Left work at 5:30 p.m.... started skinning a little before 6:30 p.m.... back to the car a little before 8:30 p.m. Just took one lap in the sheep pen. We dug a pit on a east-southeast facing slope. We were both very surprised at how well the new snow had bonded with the older. Finger(s) test showed pretty decent consistency throughout, and the shovel test required a good hammering to make anything fracture or fail... surprising. Lower elevations and full-on Betty Crocker Sun-baked south-facing aspects became true survival skiing on the way down, especially since it had really cooled down. Good way to pass the evening, anyways.

skibunny20 makes her bunny way up this bunny hill...


Higher elevation gave us good soft snow with a very minor crust on top...


Who says dynafit brakes don't work? This guy slid for about twenty feet, after I punched through some nasty crust and yard-saled...

Jason West in the gnar today on fantasy ridge. Sorry for the low-res vid from my point & shoot.

Today; went up Patsey Marley and did a couple of laps in Wolverine Cirque. Packed pow with a barely there crust and no instabilities which were being tested on a fairly impressive booter:

(Didn’t want to carry the DSLR (but should have) and therefore unable to capture the action with the cell-cam)

Lots of good skiing to had in the cirque itself:

There were still good skiing to be had on upper N& NW facing higher elevation faces in Silver and Days yesterday.
Where forced to explore and ski some new lines to find the untracked
sure didn't suck though

Skied Suicide before work today with Otter.



There's a good booter in.
It was re-filled with some nice wind-blown snow. Chalky and smooth for the most part.



The apron of superior had a SOLID Refreeze. Made for some good Chatter.

anyone get on south facing aspects late this morning/early afternoon? corn? crust?

Originally Posted by criscam

anyone get on south facing aspects late this morning/early afternoon? corn? crust?

^^^I'm wondering the same thing.

Early DP outing this morning, skibunny20 and I got skunked out of the Y, due to judicious decision-making skills and a lack of one ice axe. Rocky section a little ways up was icy and scary. We barely got to ski the apron I kind of did a special fall, tumble, ski down what we actually got up.





Wanting to wipe that one off the books with some solid spring skiing, and I'm thinking that south-facing will do the trick.

PM me if anyone wants to get out, some time today.