Flute Oboe today Nov 21st

[LeeLau]

Beautiful bluebird powder skiing in the Flute/Oboe area today. Our party of 5 tracked out the east slopes of Oboe leaving the west side untracked just to be nice. Flute backside was tracked out in centre. There's untracked snow on the north slopes off Lesser Flute and on the southern side of the slopes.

180cms HS in a test pit on E facing slope - 32 degrees steep.

10cms fist on top of 10cms 4F. Then about 75cms of dense pencil snow that is pretty much consolidated. Got the 20cms layer to react to compression test CTH 24 - but not a sudden planar/clean shear.

Basically it looked good stability wise. Some surface hoar forming - maybe 1 - 2cms.

No reaction to ski cuts on N slopes or to ski cuts on w/l NE slopes. Was good to get out in old familiar area again.

Pics to come

[LeeLau]

by the way if someone finds an Atomic Rex with Dynafit TLT bindings 177cms in the trees possibly on the lower part of Olympic Express before the gondola mid-station - skiers right side of the run. That's my ski.

it might even have crossed the ditch where the olympic express splits left to go to the gondola or right to keep heading to the village. I couldn't see where the ski went.

brakes didn't deploy for some reason

[nesta]

Some surface hoar forming - maybe 1-2cms.

I assume you mean mm's. That's some big honkin SH "forming" at 1-2 cms. Those hoars would be a bitch too at that size once buried.

[bookem]

by the way if someone finds an Atomic Rex with Dynafit TLT bindings 177cms in the trees possibly on the lower part of Olympic Express before the gondola mid-station - skiers right side of the run. That's my ski.

it might even have crossed the ditch where the olympic express splits left to go to the gondola or right to keep heading to the village. I couldn't see where the ski went.

brakes didn't deploy for some reason

Well that sure sucks!

[taynton]

I assume you mean mm's. That's some big honkin SH "forming" at 1-2 cms. Those hoars would be a bitch too at that size once buried.

Whistler Patrol's online report from this morning says up to 10mm SH. Downside of these sunny days in the future, but makes for some nice sparkles in the short term.

[LeeLau]

actually i did observe about 1 cms SH. The 2cms was probably an overestimate. Have more pictures of that




Pics

Toby



Sharon



Toby



Scott


Sven

[MrZach]

Beautiful bluebird powder skiing

by the way if someone finds an Atomic Rex with Dynafit TLT bindings 177cms in the trees

Damn you PNWers! I are jealous! I think Ullr needs to take La Nina in the backroom for a while.

[PulverSchwein]

zoom zoom


too bad on the ski Lee, hope you get it back

[powder11]

That was a fun day Lee, thanks for leading the charge! Awesome photos as usual, that last one of Sven really sums up the day. I enjoyed your snow pit tutorial and back to the basics refresher as well.

[fear and greed]

more photos of the same trip here http://hydrogenplusstupidity.blogspot.com/

[Poz]

Great day Lee and all, thanks for leading the charge! Great to meet you all and get some great turns in on such a sunny day!

I've got a couple pics here:

What a day!!


Sharon on Oboe




Lee on Flute, light was a little low by the end of the day

[grskier]

Looks freakin' awesome!

Great work, good luck finding that ski.

[Lone Star]

keep the great TRs comin', LeeLau. What camera are you using?

[nesta]

too bad about the ski Lee. Any word yet on finding it? Of all the dang places to lose a ski! Hmmm 10 mm SH? sorry to be so presumptuous regarding the size of the crystals, that's quite large to be formed first night out. Curious, was it in low sheltered areas such as near creeks & water sources or was it widespread? Do you know if it's still a growin"? And like I said, keep your eye open for that at a later date. That could possibly be nasty down the road.

[powder11]

The amount of surface hoar really isnt surprising considering the temps have been consistently -10 since it stopped snowing on Monday. The clear cold nights bring that shit out. Freezing level is going up a bit, so maybe it will all melt out and not be an issue down the road.

[el hefe]

It won't be an issue once it rains to 8000ft............... sooner or later. Gotta love that stability.

Lee - 3 more slides in the gorge alpine yesterday in case your friends are heading back up.

[nesta]

It won't be an issue once it rains to 8000ft............... sooner or later. Gotta love that stability.

that might depend upon how much snow buries it first until it rains to 8000', how hard and how much it rains once it does... of course that is if it snows before it rains or if sun or wind gets it first. And I don't think Lee ever answered as to where this SH was. Maybe it was mostly at well below 8000'?
As for pow11's comments, yes I figured there were some cold & clear nights in Whistler- I'm not actually there in Whistler at the present time- I am quite familiar with the processes of SH formation. I was merely surprised by the fact that LLau made it sound like the SH crystal size was 1-2cm as soon as it was formed. SH usually "grows" over a series of nights given favourable conditions for doing so.

[Bring On The Snow]

I was merely surprised by the fact that LLau made it sound like the SH crystal size was 1-2cm as soon as it was formed. SH usually "grows" over a series of nights given favourable conditions for doing so.

Its been cold and clear since sunday.

[nesta]

Its been cold and clear since sunday.

uh thanks for the update... it's been cold & clear here too, but since October.
BTW how cold?

[powder11]

Its been cold and clear since sunday.

actually, it snowed @ 5 cms Monday

[robnow]

Toby

Tobes, thats some good form, NICE!!


Hey MrZach - I've been wanting to say this for a while. I think its weird that your are using 2-czech's girlfriend as your avatar. Seriously, if hes going to take and post up pics like that, hes the ONLY one deserving to use it. NOT cool to take a fellow mags girl like that and call it your own. You deserve a bitchslappin'. Unless of course you tagged her at some point then I'm not sure what rules apply.

[LeeLau]

nesta - its been growing since last Sunday. High pressure sitting over coast - minus 5 in alpine during daytime and minus 10 or so during night with almost no wind.

Took the picture on a NE ridgeline. I suspect but cannot confirm that its on all aspects.

System supposed to come in this Sunday - hope it comes in with some wind.

[Spark]

That was a fun day Lee, thanks for leading the charge! Awesome photos as usual, that last one of Sven really sums up the day. I enjoyed your snow pit tutorial and back to the basics refresher as well.

Damn I should have gone!

Sven is LUCKY that I had some government thing due Wed so he could use my avy gear. He may not be so lucky next time

[Bring On The Snow]

actually, it snowed @ 5 cms Monday

my bad just going from what its been in white rock and the occasional glance at the livetemps.

[Toby]

My old bindings let you down Lee? Sorry if that's the case ...