Thread: Official Dry Gulch Thread

Wow, wow, wow, those photos are fine. As usual.

So tired from yesterday - I'm just playing cards right now and trying to start trouble on ttips. I got one girl riled up already.

Andy went and skinned up Keystone after we got out. You guys are such animals.

I wanted to go tomorrow but the weather will be icky, so I dunno.

Yeah ... feel free to bail
Looking at those pics, I have mixed feelings. They're gorgeous and I want to visit that area, but I didn't realize you guys bootpacked so much. Can't carry a pack yet

Nice pics!

Way to get out, that looked worth it.

Damn. Great pics. Nice turns. But if you went up to the Citadel ridge, traversed almost to Hagar, and had to boot a good bit on the way in and out, you all sure earned it.

Originally Posted by spthomson

sweet pics.

is that line called the boomerang?

The face above the boomerang was much bonier so we opted for this line instead.

KB--Amazing color and clarity on those pics. They really pop.

Nice photos (seriously)!

Any observations to share (serious again)?

Originally Posted by SheRa

So tired from yesterday - I'm just playing cards right now and trying to start trouble on ttips. I got one girl riled up already.

Andy went and skinned up Keystone after we got out. You guys are such animals.

Jeeezzzusss, I know it wasn't the most super intense day ever, but we were up there a while and climbed some serious vert and he still had the juice to skin another 2300' at the Stone.

I'm with you, my legs were pretty heavy yesterday...took a few warmup laps to get em loosened up.

Thanks for another great outing!

Originally Posted by JongH8er

Nice photos (seriously)!

Any observations to share (serious again)?

Thanks man! Observations concerning the snowpack in Dry Gulch:

(1) It has been damn hot this week...so whatever I observed on Tuesday very well could have changed by now... lo siento senor.

(2) However, the SE and E aspects that we skiied were solid ON TUESDAY.....no woomphs, cracks, slough-slides, or visible fractures. By the time we were on the faces (between noon and two pm) the snow had softened incredibly and was buttery smooth. Coverage was solid above 12K (ie no rocks uncovered in the aspects proper) but thinner at lower elevations.

(3) The NE and N facing aspects were more variable upon our LIMITED inspection and observation. Adimmen uncovered a lovely ice layer under less than six inches of wind-pushed sugar on the NE slope of the Citadel. One small release had occred on a NE aspect of the S ridge of the Citadel as well, but it did little in the manner of propogation...just exposing the rocks beneath.


Take this information as you will...I am FAR from an expert and these were just my observations from this past Tuesday, as objective as is possible.

Hell yeah, nice pictures and some awesome early season festivities! I remember you guys TR's from last year and such. I always appreciate what you guys are doing down there and look foward to your TR's. I have no doubt that you guys respect the mountains and the variability of conditions that occur in your area. Bring it!

This looks tasty:

I think the pic of Shera bushwacking is particularly cool. Its just different than most of the shots we see here. Also I like the shots across the valley at Trelease. I'd like to have a good panorama of that area in winter. It helps to know where you are going. That area is fun, but hard to navigate sometimes. Also, the knob where Halsted mentioned an avalanche on the sunny knob is extremely prone to sliding and very easy to roll up on without knowing it is coming. We got down in there last winter and nearly had to skin out form 3/4 the way down because everything was sliding(had slid). I was happy to hear the Backcountry Snowsports Alliance claim that they saved the area from a Lovelandl Snowcat op.

Bump, because I killed yet another good thread.

Originally Posted by soylent green

Bump, because I killed yet another good thread.

Not at all, I doubt this one will die. Just resting...

I like that bushwacking picture too. People don't talk too much about the joy of the shrubbery.

Originally Posted by tone capone

Hell yeah, nice pictures and some awesome early season festivities! I remember you guys TR's from last year and such. I always appreciate what you guys are doing down there and look foward to your TR's. I have no doubt that you guys respect the mountains and the variability of conditions that occur in your area. Bring it!

Thanks for understanding perfectly.

That said, I have only been in that drainage a handful of times, enough to make every peak. Now I'm more interested in a real relationship. So I'm especially glad to hear about slide history on Trelease because that's where I would most likely go during the winter.

I just wish the slide stories would come with snowfall data. Otherwise it just looks like a scare tactic. Hopefully snowy torrents has the rest of the relevent info.

Summit and I skied Idiot's Cornice on Loveland Pass today. The snow was tough going.


It looks like it might be soft, but I assure you that it isn't. Summit skiing.

Looks crunchy.

Warming up enough to corn up on south faces?

Hopefully it wasn't cold since Summit's puffy is in my truck. Oh and SheRa, I think we have a fleece that is yours from the Turbo movie...

Originally Posted by smitchell333

Looks crunchy.

Warming up enough to corn up on south faces?

That was my hope. But it snowed yesterday and blew in there and made a blanket. It was actually wintry.

North seemed like it might be soft, like recycled powder.

Yeah guys!

Turns are still turns, right? Bet there weren't too many people making 'em in the bc today - count it!


Oh, and thanks to United's awesome "space policy" on all flights, in which they use there "statistical history" to predict between 10 and 30 percent no shows for flights, I am spending the first night of my Thanksgiving Break at the scenic DIA Crystal Inn!


But I do have a free round trip anywhere in the lower 48 to redeem...can anyone say spring SLC/Tahoe trip?! Put me up mags! Will shoot pictures for lodging!?!

Originally Posted by KansasBoarder

Yeah guys!

Turns are still turns, right? Bet there weren't too many people making 'em in the bc today - count it!


Oh, and thanks to United's awesome "space policy" on all flights, in which they use there "statistical history" to predict between 10 and 30 percent no shows for flights, I am spending the first night of my Thanksgiving Break at the scenic DIA Crystal Inn!


But I do have a free round trip anywhere in the lower 48 to redeem...can anyone say spring SLC/Tahoe trip?! Put me up mags! Will shoot pictures for lodging!?!

You don't need an airplane to go to SLC! You should save that ticket for the Mammoth Mini. One of these days I will surely show up there.

Sunlight Knob mentioned in Hacksaw's post:



triggered from the second track from the right with a rather hard turn (12/6):







deposition zone about 1.5 meters at its deepest:











pretty wind affected since friday

Thank you so much for posting that! I checked out all the snowy torrents books looking for pics/conditions. I called Halsted to try to get pics (unsuccessfully). You showed me exactly what I wanted to see, the crown, starting zone. Couldn't figure out if the face runs from higher up, or just the nob itself.

We skied that way yesterday, but stayed in the woods adjacent on looker's left. No cracking, whoomphing, flagged trees, etc. Was about 2-3 feet of well bound dense snow on top of 4" of sugar. The part I didn't enjoy too much was the 2" of soft windslab on the surface. It was prevalant top to bottom of the run.

Other people skied the S aspect of Trelease yesterday and didn't have the surface slab. But they talked about a potential sliding surface partways through the pack. If you remember , this last cycle of great snow had one really warm day just before chair 4 started running, and I'm guessing if formed then. Brett said he saw a slide within the trees on S/SE at the mine dumps as well. Dunno if natural or not, maybe he'll post and say.

In other news, N/NE facing went to the ground naturally at treeline few short miles away. Kinda windloaded, but not a cornice on the easterly facing side of the line. I though that was a safer choice, but not in this case. It's a definite slide path and I've skied it several times, but I never saw it slide and didn't know how easily it might go. PM me if you need to know the line.

So warm today. It's supposed to start snowing again. I'll be on groomers the next two days, but I'll hopefully get to ski powder again Wednesday. No idea what at this point, wait and see. It's a new game now, and probably much more complicated.

That 4 inches of sugar isn't going away anytime soon. New snow on top of that + skier = danger.

Be careful gang.

Why don't you go and ski and post something useful that's not just armchair qb of shit we all know already?

Originally Posted by SheRa

Why don't you go and ski and post something useful that's not just armchair qb of shit we all know already?

Who's we when you say "we all know already". Hack gave specifics about this very spot, so what happens? You said above that what you didn't enjoy was the 2 inches of windslab at the top. Well, what about the 4 inches of hoar on the bottom?

You constantly post shit like you know what you are talking about. I didn't douche anyone, gave a "heads-up" that this is likely to get worse and said "Be careful gang." I don't see what is so wrong with that.

You're such a cunt.

No, you are.

I'm so disappointed that this thread wasn't about grass skiing. Dry Gulch is deceptive advertising! Nazis! Racism!