CDN Rockies 2010-11 roll call and stoke

[f2f]

[taz]

I was there on Saturday but only in the afternoon. New side closed after the slide in Curry Bowl, so Bear was ridiculous. I've never seen so many people on it. Slushy man, it wasn't so much fun.

I don't know where you're getting 16cm's from, but it's been pissing rain all day today as well. A couple of my housemates went up today and said there was about 10 other people on the hill total... and still raining.

RCR's snow reporting is such propaganda shit. There was 0 snow accumulation this weekend.

I have to say we had in influx of people this weekend in Blairmore, we didn't get the rain fernie was/ has been getting and the upper mountain was really good saturaday morning, makes my 45minute drive to work worth it. Sunday the snow was still holding up really well despite the warm temps. I'm really getting sick of leaving the house in rain and getting home to rain.

At least I stay dry at work

[Alex.C]

This photo (hotlinked) from the Calgary Herald appears to showing crown from Saturday's accident:



It looks like it ripped out all the way from the lowest angle area where everyone usually climbs up into the pass (~left end) over to the edge of the steep and gnarly bits on the right. The leftmost area often looks like:



I dug a pit in a steeper part of that left area a few weeks ago and got a mostly unresponsive CT; had to whack the hell out of it (30+) and then it broke at ground.

[Shorty_J]

We dug a pit yesterday at Black Prince and could get no results at all with a typical shovel compression test. Then we did a very imprecise and non-scientific ruschblock (sp?) and the entire snowpack failed on the facets on the first jump.

Clearly a ruschblock is an unsupported feature that should be avoided, but the other implication of that test is that if there is a failure, it will go to ground and be big. With the warm temps yesterday hovering around zero, things were primed and ready to go.

How "low angle" would you estimate the lookers left is? I've been up there once but don't have a good recolection of the details of that terrain.

[Alex.C]

How "low angle" would you estimate the lookers left is? I've been up there once but don't have a good recolection of the details of that terrain.

Hmm not exactly sure, at the top where its steepest just before it rolls over into the flat of the pass, maybe 30° or so.

[sitskib]

Definition of unfair: my boss calls me to say they are trapped in golden...

Talk about salt in the wound on a Monday morning

[Caucasian Asian]

Definition of unfair: my boss calls me to say they are trapped in golden...

Talk about salt in the wound on a Monday morning

He's not stuck. He just doesn't feel like driving around through Fernie.


Kinda like me.

[sitskib]

Haha....thanks CA. To be honest I'm tempted to find a way to get "stuck"!

[brraaap802]

Finally threw in the towel and drove back to Calgary from Golden via Fernie. Road actually ok. Hope the #1 opens up by Friday though. Pouring rain and 7 degrees in Fernie doesn't bode well. I guess they reopened up Super Bowl today at KH but didn't get in there today b4 leaving.

[Shorty_J]

Hmm not exactly sure, at the top where its steepest just before it rolls over into the flat of the pass, maybe 30° or so.

That's a bit alarming if it's accurate. Sympathetic release, maybe? Black Prince is fairly low-angle, but the most experienced member of our group said it gets up to 32 degrees on the main part of the cone. At least it has some skier compaction, I suppose. And the aspect is different.

On our second lap we went up the lookers right of the creek and skied SW facing trees. There were a couple of pitches that prorably approached 30 degrees, but they were small sections and fairly densly treed. We eye-fucked an E-facing line towards the Spray Lakes road that was probably 35-40 degrees at the top and decided against it... pretty much the same aspect that slid Saturday at Burstal, and the same aspect that slid on Sunday at Black Prince off the cone.

[time2clmb]

Finally a fucking end to this bullshit in sight. Should be home Friday night, and they can go fuck themselves. A bit of comfort knowing that had I been changed out last Saturday, I probably wouldn't have been able to get home anyways. Not without some major detouring through the flatlands.

[Alex.C]

That's a bit alarming if it's accurate. Sympathetic release, maybe?

I suspect expect sympathetic release for that far along, but I also do think my angle may be underestimated a little, couldn't find any photos of my own to restimate the angle from, but did stumble across this of someone else's:



I don't recall it being quite that steep either, probably a funny photo angle. So maybe its really somewhere in between..

[Singel]

Pretty sure I fail at the internet - if the youtube embed doesn't work here's a linky: [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDUKRftcq6s"]YouTube - True North[/nomedia]

[f2f]

i wonder how many gnar points that was worth

[mntlion]

[Joe Strummer]

Was cat skiing at Mustang Fri-Sun.
Great snow but a bit heavy from rising temps.
Torrential rain in Revy Sunday night when we came back to civilization.
Spent the night in Revy after being turned away heading to Golden at about 7PM Sunday night followed by a 12+hr drive back to Calgary Monday through Nelson/Fernie.

Sounds like the resort skiing was good around Banff from what I could gather.

Driving through Fernie last night it was +6 and raining.

[Dromond]

...Driving through Fernie last night it was +6 and raining.

Ouch.

So I've got ~Thurs-Tues to do some skiing. One bc ski partner, no hut reservations, and not too much budget. Any suggestions? Sounds like elevation and a high treeline are key.

[Joe Strummer]

Ouch.

Sounds like elevation and a high treeline are key.

Not unless you want to risk your life.
Best just stick to sub alpine, low slope treed areas and stay safe.

[mntlion]

better to go for coffee, or ski on hill.

stuff is going to rock, when it goes. most elevations, and aspects.

[Dromond]

Not unless you want to risk your life.
Best just stick to sub alpine, low slope treed areas and stay safe.

better to go for coffee, or ski on hill.

stuff is going to rock, when it goes. most elevations, and aspects.

Cheers. Things do look quite overloaded.

[mtbkr]

I hope this is the right thread to post under.

Saturday at Kicking Horse I was skiing the glades that come off CPR ridge directly below the Gondola.
I had traversed the ridge until the trees started getting tight and the terrain gets a little "cliffy".

Anyway, hit a rock and ejected from my 196 Lhasa Pow which, after two hours of searching, is still somewhere in the snow.
It's got a marker duke binder and I'll give $100 to whoever finds it

[nicolaib211v]

I hope this is the right thread to post under.

Saturday at Kicking Horse I was skiing the glades that come off CPR ridge directly below the Gondola.
I had traversed the ridge until the trees started getting tight and the terrain gets a little "cliffy".

Anyway, hit a rock and ejected from my 196 Lhasa Pow which, after two hours of searching, is still somewhere in the snow.
It's got a marker duke binder and I'll give $100 to whoever finds it

Go tell patrol. Honestly, they may have a metal detector and you might get lucky.

[weibo]

Thanks mntlion that completes the Skier article and I know one of the guys they run into.

[Gripen]

I hope this is the right thread to post under.

Saturday at Kicking Horse I was skiing the glades that come off CPR ridge directly below the Gondola.
I had traversed the ridge until the trees started getting tight and the terrain gets a little "cliffy".

Anyway, hit a rock and ejected from my 196 Lhasa Pow which, after two hours of searching, is still somewhere in the snow.
It's got a marker duke binder and I'll give $100 to whoever finds it

I was the guy in the yellow Big Mountain Centre jacket that stopped and talked to you for a sec. Hope you went to patrol as they've been able to help in the past.

[f2f]

i'm sure most here are subscribed, but for the occasional drifter, here's what MCR has to say about current conditions around revelstoke, soon to the east too:

Today we received several reports of unexpected, unusual, large, and destructive avalanches that ran in the last 24 hours. These occurred after major precipitation and winds had ended and as/after temperatures cooled off. Several size 3 – 3.5 and one size 4.5 that dammed the Illecillewaet River east of Revelstoke: http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_...114169389.html

We are not yet certain about what is causing these avalanches and whether this kind of activity is likely to continue. However, it might be wise to be wary for the next few days until we see if this is a short term problem or something that might be longer lived. If/when we figure out what’s happening we’ll put information and advice in the CAC avalanche forecasts at: http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/latest

I must stress that several of these avalanches surprised professionals, some of whom are very senior practitioners with many, many years of experience.