Results 201 to 225 of 1655
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12-06-2010, 09:14 PM #201
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12-07-2010, 12:35 AM #202
Just checked out the Prior boards and like what I'm seeing. Plus they're a local company, which is sweet to begin with.
Thanks for the help, cheers.
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12-07-2010, 10:52 AM #203
Pretty much right on target. Once again this isn't the official word, just my very un official interpretation. My apologies for bringing anger and not stoke.
Poaching of avalanche closures on Whistler Blackcomb has become rampant, and has been getting worse for years. Finally the inevitable has happened, and liability concerns (like blowing someone up or burying them in an explosive triggered avalanche) has forced us to adjust what is open and what is closed on a storm day.
I've skied all over North America, and other big areas I've been to (Jackson, Big Sky, Squaw, etc) there seems to be more respect for what these closures mean. Unfortunately, around WB now people will march right past a sign, or flip a sign to open as they walk by, or go to the end of the signline and then start walking uphill. To be clear, I'm not talking about clueless tourists wandering blindly into a closure, I'm talking about "locals" (ha) willfully poaching in avalanche closures.
Regarding the now closed route from the bottom of Harmony Chair: WB has an agreement with BC Parks to allow access to Garabaldi Park. There is 24 hour access to the Park up Singing Pass. Obviously this isn't very convenient for a day of ski touring, so a second access was created that goes from the bottom of Harmony to the bottom of Symphony AND THEN OUT INTO GARABALDI PARK. This was very clearly indicated on the signage. Unfortunately more and more people have been disregarding this and skinning up to Encore Ridge and Lesser Flute. Obviously, when patrol is throwing bombs on Flute Shoulder or on Lesser Flute, its pretty annoying/scary to see people skinning up below you. This used to never happen. About 4 or 5 years ago it started to happen once in a while. Now it happens almost every time we do avalanche control. As a certified blaster, it is the patrollers legal responsiblility to ensure the blast area and danger area are clear. This means if you poach an avalanche closure, and I set off an avalanche that buries you, its MY fault, not yours.
"Back in the Day" most locals respected and understood our avalanche closures. This allowed us to leave a lot of terrain open on storm days or during active avalanche control. Now all we hear is "I didn't see the sign" or "I didn't understand what that meant" or "I didn't go between the signs, I went to the end of the line and then started hiking" or my personal favorite "I don't think this should be closed"
The reality of our operation is that storm days are busy days. We don't have time to give people the maximum amount of terrain possible, AND police our signlines to make sure no one is going past them. In the past, we were able to let people skin out to Garabaldi Park while we were doing control work, because people followed the signs. No one would be silly enough to skin around inbounds below Flute and Lesser Flute while we were throwing bombs. Clearly this is no longer the case. So the sign line was moved back to the bottom of Harmony, to give us a bigger buffer between the public and the explosive work being conducted in Flute.
This sucks if you were in the groups that didn't poach, but our hands are tied.
This is not the end of this! If the poaching continues, we could be forced to close the Goat Path, so we can keep people from hiking the Upper VD's, or hiking Highway 86 and into the runouts of the Hollywood and West Bowl slide paths. When I moved here, no one would go to the top of the Goat Path and then hike straight up into the Upper VD's. People understood that during AC everything above the Goat Path was closed, and stayed out. Now people are up there for their first run. Is it ignorance? Is it straight up poaching? Who knows really, but the end result is the same.
I can hear it out there already "But there are no signs at the top of the Goat Path saying I can't hike up? How do I know?" For one, every sign we put at the top of the Goat Path mysteriously disappears. Also, it isn't realistic for us to put up a sign at every point where someone could bootpack straight uphill. For another thing, it's been pretty common knowledge in this town for the past 30 years that from the end of an avalanche control line, you can do a gliding traverse but you can't bootpack straight up! Also, as I mentioned before, we don't have the time or the manpower to create and maintain a 3 kilometre line of signs that goes all the way across the top of the Goat Path. What we do have time for is one sign at the base of the Goat Path hike that says "CLOSED AVALANCHE CONTROL" That would suck.
This isn't a threat. I don't make these decisions. I'm just telling it the way it is. If you see people doing this stupid shit, give them some verbal abuse before they fuck it up for all of us. In the past I made use of the access to the park during storms all the time. Now it's gone. A big fuck you to the people who screwed this up for us. If any of you assholes screw up the Goat Path too I'm going to be fucking choked.
End of rant. I'm going skiing! Big storm rolling in!
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12-07-2010, 11:19 AM #204
preaching to the choir dude....I had no idea it had gotten that bad, but then again, when it's pounding and you guys are throwing bombs, I don't even consider going into avy closures, you just don't do that...although I guess there are a lot of dumb fucks out there that do. quick question as I don't want to get caught, does this mean the lower harmony lift line shot is now closed from the top of that last GS pitch?
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12-07-2010, 11:28 AM #205
i say you just let darwin sort it all out
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12-07-2010, 12:03 PM #206
As usual, You can go to the last closed sign and do a gliding traverse. When it's closed all the way, the intent is you can ski the liftline or glide over further into the trees but not gain any elevation or hike over to the Boot Chutes or Gunbarrels, which seems to be the current line.
Sent from creek Gondi!
Thanks for asking
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12-07-2010, 12:05 PM #207
I blame DEEPER and the whole splitboard phenomenom
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. -Helen Keller
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12-07-2010, 12:22 PM #208Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. -Helen Keller
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12-07-2010, 12:51 PM #209
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12-07-2010, 02:24 PM #210Face Sharts
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- Pemberton
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- 23
Fissile NW face
Fissile NW face on Sunday - incredible. Knee deep blower all the way down. No time for in-run photo's - we were charging...
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12-07-2010, 03:38 PM #211
It's raining to Glacier Creek, but full on NUKING from there on up! Already knee deep in smoked salmon. Alpine is doubtfull for tomorrow, so prepare for the 5 lap Jersey Cream gong show 1st thing!
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. -Helen Keller
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12-07-2010, 04:23 PM #212
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12-07-2010, 04:35 PM #213
^^ ditto
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12-07-2010, 11:06 PM #214
is glacier creek on blackcomb about the eqiv height of the bottom of green on whistler?
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12-08-2010, 12:14 AM #215
Bottom of the green chair is lower. 1,400 meters versus 1,550 for Glacier Creek.
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12-08-2010, 12:16 AM #216
so its raining 1/3 the way up green chair
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12-08-2010, 12:24 AM #217
It hardly seems worth crying over unless it starts raining at Roundhouse. The forecast indicates the snow level will be decreasing for the rest of the week.
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12-08-2010, 12:59 AM #218
nice. I'd be happy with that.
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12-08-2010, 08:57 AM #219
I bet all the dumb JONG aussies in town take their day off today and get stuck waiting for hours at solar coaster only to find out the bottom 1/2 of Springboard is a sheet of ice while the top 1/2 is completely wind buffed and the alpine ain't gonna crack. Thursday or Friday is a better pick.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. -Helen Keller
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12-08-2010, 10:43 AM #220
Did an Aussie steal your girlfriend or something man? You sound bitter
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12-08-2010, 01:28 PM #221
I had a lot of fun this morning, another ski right on day, knee deep all over, lots of face shots!
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12-08-2010, 03:29 PM #222Registered User
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
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- a
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Start smoking the crack pipe again or start jerking off with your opposite hand to make life exciting for 40 seconds, because out of the 200 posts that are on this thing, 180 are yours and 99% of them are of you crying and complaining about something. It's called a stoke thread.
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12-08-2010, 03:58 PM #223
Yes, definitely a fine day. No-one on the mountain, ratfink, franz's meadow... lots of fun. Someone told me that Chunky's was good, although some care required.
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12-08-2010, 04:39 PM #224
Snow must be good to lure skieast out of hiding and back on TGR.
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12-08-2010, 07:27 PM #225
Holy great lower mountain storm day Batman!
More to come tomorrow! The tree skiing is starting to round into shape
woohoo
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