Thread: Wasatch 08-09 Conditions

man, alias' are so fucking gutless. that shit really chaps my ass. subjectmatter was prolly one of the clueless tools we passed on argenta that were totally skiing over each others trax when there was untracked off to the sides,

just got back from powchasing in ootah and had one of the best weeks of skiing in my life. ALL the people we met on the skintrack and elsewhere were nice as could be, sharing info and beta on the various questions we posed to em. and the radness of this community came to shine on our 1stday when skifishbum allowed us to tag along on various sweet shots that i wont mention out of respect to him though i'm pretty sure he could give 2 shits if i did. he's a way cool cat and thanx again mang.

the other 2 days we just used argenta as an access point though we only skied the main skiers right shot once. everyone was just skiing the skiers left side as i'd imagine they didnt want to deal w/ that shitty ridgeline traverse involved in gaining the summit from that side. in 6 laps we basically skied every single line off kessler in those 2 days w/ sum downright epic conditions. being the 1st one down the east couloir on wednesday was in the top 3 runs of my life. unfuckingreal it was. so good we had to go back up to ski the east bowl (catchers mitt???) for the homerun down cardiff. not another soul around except all the folks skiing argenta main so we actually had to bust the cardiff out at 7:00.

the next day we skied 2 laps on the lawnmower and then did a kinda sketchy traverse all the way across the summit ridgeline to ski the west couloir. that was the only run all week where we hit some other tracks though it was almost welcome to us tahoe folk who prolly woulda struggled w/ some routefinding in the crux and in the out down mineral. i can see why that area gets lots of pressure cause there are sweet lines w/ good vert and the right aspect.

this trip made me realize there really are cool folks in utah and all the hubbub about utah skiing is well founded. u guys are sum lucky motherfuckers so stop bitching and go enjoy it. we're stuck in a corn cycle and as one of the local folks we met on the mower said " there aint no magazine called corn"

^^^Good post. Get in touch on your next trip out for some more fun.

^^^ Way to put this thread back on track Gnarwhale!

Went north instead today in search of decent skiing along with scoping out some northeast facing peaks for a future trip. With over a foot of new snow above 6K since the initial drive up, the return trip along the steep single lane gravel road was white knuckled.

Low visibility but good skiing in the upper elevations and the whole time the Wasatch divide was experiencing lake effect squalls even at lower elevations:

6400-10k. 12" settled new over a spongy base.
Northeast facing skied good at 5 pm but ski cuts were continuing to produce new snow sluffs running into lower angled terrain. Late afternoon instability shower freshened things up, with dry snow to the road.
Sun may well turn that creamy to mank by mid morning on all but upper elevation shady.

Originally Posted by wow

Didn't you lose some gear because you were to busy taking photographs in the middle of the run instead of standing off to the side ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????

No gear was lost taking photos in the middle of any run.
I did have an unfortunate incident of dropping the camera in the creek, today. Hopefully, it dries out.

Originally Posted by wow

Then maybe you should get better at letting people poke fun at you!!!!!!!

A alias c and peed from another chat room for the sole purpose of stalking seems like an odd way of poking fun to me, but...carry on if it turns your crank.

Had a great week in the Wasatch, this week. Started with a very obscure DawnP (ahem... Grizzly Gulch) on Wednesday yielding face shots, then a manky-survival-skiing in a very obscure DuskP (ahem... Mill D) on Thursday, then more blower powder in a very obscure DuskP (ahem... Grizzly Gulch) part of the Wasatch on Friday, then skied Solitude for the first time, today. My observations are useless, except for one: Utah rocks. I worked 60 hours, this week, and got out and skied four days. Hell, I'm at work, now, finishing up a few things. All the while, there certainly has been a great deal of scuttlebutt regarding the Wasatch. I certainly wasn't expecting this much snow for the first week of April. So, once again, my observation is: Utah rocks.

Gimpy Damn glad to meet ya and share turns down Davenport, NW facing keyhole/ hideway, bananna days and days draw. Damn good slack side back err skiing I wish you wouldn't have let em all know there is more than one way down Argenta/Kessler I hate agreeing with my little yellow asshat.

Wish I got better pics that day but here is some point em and shooters
Your bro JT

Steve

You

Here's the helmy footy



Here is a couple shots of Sfotex and the Mrs. on the E ramp off Kes


Lot of good shit to be skied out there and beyond

To be Gotten

So I wanted to ride lifts and skidown steep shit and jump off someting riding them uberfatt reverse/reverse whompers
but the mrs. made me go up kessler Gagging face shots TH's lurker buddies and shit I think they turned gramps into a lurker now too were tearing it up and I think the dropped the W. steep shit was sluffing and flushing pretty easy. Remotely triggered a big cornice from about 4' away that pretty much took out all of the new snow in the E coluior. Got vetoed on a east ramp exit. NW skied well in spots that didn't sluff down to rock
Bottom 500' of argenta had manked up even with cloud cover all day and temp of 31 at 4:00 ish exit.
Mr.s Powderpond

Mrs. Bum

Copious amounts of cold smoke pow flyin in you face rendered the helmet cam pretty much useless today

Twas stupid deep today. I am mostly a lurker now, as mentioned, I don't see the point of posting anymore honestly, although this thread is fun to look at sometimes. No crowd on Argenta when I was there this morning. The internets can't make people get out of bed before 9 on a Saturday apparently. Trailbreaking ranged from "I can't believe how easy it is to break through this waist deep snow!" to "holy fuck this is up to my armpits and getting extremely exhausting." Stability ranged from "wahoo!" to "I think I'm gonna pick a run I won't completely wipe out with a giant slough of doom." Did I mention it was incredibly deep and fluffy today? Please carry on with the various alias wars and arguments over how much to tell the throngs of gapers that are hanging on my every word.

Originally Posted by gramps

Twas stupid deep today

Indeed. This is the only pic I got where you can see a part of the rider:


Dusk patrol up Flagstaff doesn't get much better than that.

fack i wish i coulda stayed 2 more days. that looks horrible.

crazy bout the cornice break on ya sfb cause jt almost went down w/ one in similar fashion above the east face of kesslers subpeak/lawnmower on thurs.

Lazy 8:30 am start. Lots of peeps with big smiles all around.
Skied ESE facing at 9:30am with the snow being perfect and not baked yet. One and done. Nominal sluffing. Free game, people were skiing everything in sight.

Not everyone was smiling though and some people deserve to get their eyes poked out...
Fun was had until about 11am then things got heavy.



[/quote]

Good day to be out there early. Two laps; the only instabilities noted were the typical ones on the rocky benches:



By midmorning on the second run, directly opposite this one on the northwest aspect, which had been shaded up to that point, things were starting to heat up and the top 2-4” inches of snow were sluffing & running.

The ski out called for spring wax. Also saw some—strange—post holing on the luge run-out only to round the corner on a startled moose.

Edit: Wait; what? Positions can be given away again?

Plans were made last night, plans change because I didn't really want to be on top of bonkers when udot is lobbing shells onto stairs.

So we picked a different locale. Wasn't bad.

Some trail had to be broken, even here in the sheep pen: (under the radar)


Good turns: (under the radar)


So we went for seconds, skinner is in why not: (criscam, under the radar)


More goodness had: (criscam)


So we went for another and then another.... until finally around 2pm the snow got pretty heavy on the wnw aspect we were skiing. There were some big sluffs first thing this morning but they seemed to stabilize quickly.
Scenery was seen:


I won't give away the location for this rarely visited corner of the wasatch, the two groups we saw were too much.

Originally Posted by zion zig zag

I won't give away the location for this rarely visited corner of the wasatch, the two groups we saw were too much.

Sick, I know right where that is. I'm definitely going there tomorrow with atleast 12 others. Thanks for the BETA!

Originally Posted by Trackhead

Sick, I know right where that is. I'm definitely going there tomorrow with atleast 12 others. Thanks for the BETA!

Yes, no one ever goes there.

due to tahoe being pretty pointless right now, i am in utah.

due to knowing no one here who hasn't been working all weekend i have been riding resorts.


i found what i flew to utah for today in scotty's bowl off snowbird.


i shot photos of strangers i encountered in the woods. i don't know who this guy is, but i do know that there is both a high def video and and a professional still of this very same turn.

i am here through tomorrow (mon). by the end of today i had realized that there was nothing left in bounds worth riding. thanks to delta's exorbitant baggage pricing, i have my board and avy gear but not my snowshoes.

so i am hoping that someone on this thread will give up the most over used tracked out backcountry hike suitable for an underequipped out of town tourist like myself. something north facing... maybe with lots of tight trees for shade... where can i park easily, hike in someone else's boot pack, and get knee deep powder turns right next to 30 other tracks.

i think i'd rather hike for more of this than buy a lift ticket......




ok back to munchkin land....

Originally Posted by zion zig zag

Plans were made last night, plans change because I didn't really want to be on top of bonkers when udot is lobbing shells onto stairs.

We beat the closure and they said the fireworks would be completed by 8:45 so the timing worked out. But you bring up an interesting topic and I wonder if Trackhead still has the ability to fix the image links in this thread (not to be skied this spring):

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=12982

N facing upper silver and days skied well

Judging by the + 200 castle dots that must have been skiing well too

Originally Posted by zion zig zag

I won't give away the location for this rarely visited corner of the wasatch, the two groups we saw were too much.

You forgot the part where at the end of the day you decided to pull up next to a white subie and hit on the hot blonde chic in the passenger seat. After that we looked back and Taylor was out HARD. You probably did not even see her as she was slumped over the side of her booster.

Originally Posted by gramps

I don't see the point of posting anymore honestly:

Considering the quality of your pictures you've shared in the past I'm going to have to call b.s. on this one as your contributions and pics have surely been missed this season.

11,000ft east aspects had two inch crust that softened nicely at around 9:30am.


North aspects were still holding perfect snow with no instabilities.


The NW exit was still holding perfect, dry powder for several thousand feet.


No instabilities, nominal wet slide activity during our 5am to 2pm tour.

Hah!

Most people tilt the camera to make the slope look steeper, trackhead tilts it to make it look more meadow skippy.




Messin with ya dude, thanks again for sharing. Looked like a great day to be out and about.

dusk patrolled tonight only thinking i'd be going out for the up to stay in "touring shape" .... had a small devil on my shoulder whisper in my ear to pay attention to sheltered, straight north facing for pow. as much as i hate to say it, sometimes the devil is right.

anywho, straight north facing about about 9-9.5k is about a foot or so of almost fully recrystallized, hero pow. i do find it slightly amazing how after only a night of clear, cold skys surface hoar/hero pow can already be growing. it skis great, but pay attention folks - it is ready to run and run deep on slopes above about 35-40 degrees.

be safe and get it early as the forecasted winds for tomorrow will most likely kill it.

Went up BCC early this morning and last night’s refreeze meant skinning was go anywhere you want, easy. Plus, north facing aspects still made for really good re-crystallized powder turns while brief turns on other aspects saw the crust mostly holding and the skiing was very fast. An example of last night’s corduroy surface hoar as described by Xover:


However, other aspects were kind of falling apart… with lots of pinwheels that looked like this everywhere below any rock formations:


And three distinct slides that ran across Sunday's skinner on bonkers:

ePiech- was that you flying up the skinner this morning?

Despite the naysayers claims, there's still powder in upper elevation sheltered areas.