Wasatch 08-09 Conditions

**Trackhead** · 11-07-2008, 05:42 PM

Went up in the soup heading towards the N. face of Superior.

Quite a bit of settling in the snow from days prior, and a little wind loading.

NE aspect at about 10,500ft or so. No instabilities in the new snow, but the faceted layer was about 6" from the ground. Didn't spend much time, but the sheer layer wasn't impressive.

The clouds broke briefly, and we scurried to make some turns.

It was good enough that our quaint group of six decided to make another lap.

Flykdog, second run of the year.

Grizzle6 had to bail to home, then quickly found himself eating a shit sandwich trying to get out via the S. Face of Soupville. Seen here, cold and alone, afraid, crying out for mommy on the ridgeline.

Flyk for another lap.

In defeat, Grizzle6 skis back to the group. Only to later make another attempt at skiing out the S. Face and have a mini-epic. Flyk and I went out the way we came in.

Tom, Jenny, Craig, and Grizzle, bailing to face their upcoming epic.

We went up for thirds, and the skied out via braille.

Still good skiing on north and northwest aspects. Best snow is high elevation in the trees. Saw no avy activity, and felt good about the stability.

**grizzle6** · 11-07-2008, 05:47 PM

Holy geez. It was a serious epic skiing down Little Sup. Super foggy, manky and scary. My legs are tired.

**marauders** · 11-07-2008, 09:32 PM

Strong N/NW wind on upper elevation ridgetops on the Alpine Ridge. I was at Snowbird, so I didn't get any observations on the resulting wind loading. Something to consider with the new snow on Sunday/Monday.

**alto** · 11-07-2008, 09:51 PM

So did grizz and co just fucking ski south sup? What happened?

btw Big Balls is killing me here.

**Trackhead** · 11-07-2008, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by alto

So did grizz and co just fucking ski south sup? What happened?

Yeah, we got back to the ridge and thought they'd be gone, but we heard voices. They took a pretty damn long time to descend in the 15ft visibility. We waited, then bailed back to Pole Line.

Sounded like it really sucked. Lotsa sharp, pokey rocks.

I'm sure when it clears their tracks will look pretty silly.

**Nathan Explosion** · 11-07-2008, 11:05 PM

Big Balls, I'm going to the bird on Tuesday, I think you should come.

You all are making me feel even worse about the flu. Why the fuck did I have to get sick this week?

**Xover** · 11-07-2008, 11:52 PM

Grizz never fails to make me laugh; i.e. I mean cackle out loud

p.s. thanks HH and Flyk for the skinner for tomorrow a.m.; you guys rawk

Big Balls · 11-07-2008, 11:57 PM

Originally Posted by Nathan Explosion

Big Balls, I'm going to the bird on Tuesday, I think you should come.

You all are making me feel even worse about the flu. Why the fuck did I have to get sick this week?

Well I was going to go on Monday when all the crowds have cleared out but it looks like I'm not going to have any sun! We are suppose to get slammed again on Sun, Mon, and Tues. When will it stop fucking snowing, the clouds clear, and the sun come out so I can go skiing California style!!!

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...2=-111.637&e=1

**gramps** · 11-08-2008, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by Big Balls

Well I was going to go on Monday when all the crowds have cleared out but it looks like I'm not going to have any sun! We are suppose to get slammed again on Sun, Mon, and Tues. When will it stop fucking snowing, the clouds clear, and the sun come out so I can go skiing California style!!!

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...2=-111.637&e=1

Today?

I'm glad I checked the thread to see that Derek tracked out N face of Sup, have to think of somewhere else to go today...

**Weird_in_the_Wasatch** · 11-08-2008, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by Trackhead

Sounded like it really sucked. Lotsa sharp, pokey rocks.

I'm sure when it clears their tracks will look pretty silly.

I was thinking the same thing about the rocks when I saw their tracks across canyon this morning.

Found descent skiing this morning on North and Northeast aspects above 10K...East was a bit wind-affected. The sun was ass raping the snow by hte time we left.

**AltaPowderDaze** · 11-08-2008, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by The Gnarwhale

Avi Experts: What are the possible scenarios for the granular, rain-soaked layer that old reliable (likely?) ran on?

It seems to me that warm ground + warm air temps will help everything presently on the ground bond well.

i'm no avi expert but for my purposes i'll be tracking that layer whenever we get significant loading over short periods of time. that layer is buried and insulated from the cold. it will take some time to freeze and heal itself. It is only present where snow was before the last storm, which means shady slopes above about 10.5k. on old reliable, most of the snow came from a 2-2.5' deep crown below the cliff bands. the slide actually started up near the top of the slope in a wind roll where the layer was buried about 5-6' deep.

fwiw, that was a class 3 that i could have seen myself standing under. we could see it loading but i don't think any of us expected that.

on a side note to grizzle6, were you back to take vengeance on your mt superior ass gouger? that rock was still sporting some of your tissue last time i saw it.

**grizzle6** · 11-08-2008, 07:40 PM

Dude. No vengeance taken yesterday. Simply a group of skiers trying to get down without dying. Worst descent ever for sure. Fortunately both myself and Tom were quite familiar with surroundings, but it was still difficult getting down without getting cliffed out. I still need to go spit on that rock and fart in its general direction...

**alto** · 11-08-2008, 08:04 PM

I skied South Superior with powdherb on 6/29/08.

Which means the thing went for just over four months without seeing a descent. For an insanely rocky south facing slag heap, that's fucking unbelievable. Granted grizz's descent sounded like a nightmare, but still! Four month summer!?

**schindlerpiste** · 11-08-2008, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by Big Balls

Well I was going to go on Monday when all the crowds have cleared out but it looks like I'm not going to have any sun! We are suppose to get slammed again on Sun, Mon, and Tues. When will it stop fucking snowing, the clouds clear, and the sun come out so I can go skiing California style!!!

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...2=-111.637&e=1

Shhhhhh! I'm going Monday...whether it's bombing or bluebird.

**basinbum** · 11-08-2008, 08:35 PM

It can bomb all winter.... ill go every day and bigballs wont go once...

**Trackhead** · 11-08-2008, 08:46 PM

Grizzle,

Flyk and I were kind of shaking our heads standing there on the ridge. Sort of laughing, but knowing exactly what you were going through.

Zero visibility descent in minimal snow, through cliff bands. GET SUM!

**zion zig zag** · 11-08-2008, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by grizzle6

Worst descent ever for sure.

I left the decision up to Trackhead cause I didn't know the terrain at all, but I was hoping we would just skin back to the way we came in. Now I'm REALLY glad we did.

**Nathan Explosion** · 11-08-2008, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by Big Balls

Well I was going to go on Monday when all the crowds have cleared out but it looks like I'm not going to have any sun! We are suppose to get slammed again on Sun, Mon, and Tues. When will it stop fucking snowing, the clouds clear, and the sun come out so I can go skiing California style!!!

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...2=-111.637&e=1

You'd think all that body armor and $1200 setup would keep you warm and dry.

Oh well, more fresh for me.

**JTrue** · 11-09-2008, 04:22 PM

Headed up the Albion side of Alta with Springsproject, skied NE aspects next to Gunsight. Every other aspect was a bit crunchy. We skied some nice creamy pow. Took two runs then back down to SLC to ride the Bonneville Shoreline Trail up Dry Creek over to Bobsled and back down. North facing aspects were a bit wet, but not too bad. Good day...

**skideeppow** · 11-09-2008, 08:03 PM

xover, thinking of heading over during this cycle. How is high baldy looking ofr an opening this week? Coverage ok or you still need some pow?
Looking to come over for one day of typical utah storm skiing.
what do you think?

**Xover** · 11-09-2008, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by skideeppow

xover, thinking of heading over during this cycle. How is high baldy looking ofr an opening this week? Coverage ok or you still need some pow?
Looking to come over for one day of typical utah storm skiing.
what do you think?

hey buddy,

unless you are like a crackhead that is an hour late on his needed hit, i'd save my time and $$$ for a little while longer. storm tonight is now forecasted to head more to the south and only drop somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-9"; plus none of the so-called "storms" this coming week are a "storm" imho - mostly just pissers.

things got pretty warm here over the last 3 days and only the shaded north facing is still holding anything resembling creamy pow. and even then, it has settled to about 2-2 1/2 feet. ignore all those blower pow pics from earlier in the week; it ain't existant anymore.

my suggestion would be to sit tight a week or two longer and keep an eye on our weather (you can check them all via links from Alta's website). we will have a good, travel-from-asspan-worthy-storm around t'giving. i realize this coincides with things opening up around there, but don't forget that by then we will likely have a 40" consolidated base that a good lake effect storm will be falling upon as oppose to your 12" of sugar

X

p.s. even though the bird opened on friday; many, many of my friends have either gone up for only 1 run to say it ain't all that or haven't gone up at all.

**skifishbum** · 11-09-2008, 08:25 PM

Went up to sillytude w/ PP and our better 1/2's good coverage (30 sumthin) and soft pow on N aspects above 10k. Wolvie, Tlp, fig.8, and Patsey all looking pretty boney yet. Good turns on the top of the Green.

**thebigeast** · 11-10-2008, 02:18 AM

broke my fritchi's yesterday so i was stuck skiing the bird...actaully turned out to be a really sweet day because they ended up openeing up p-gulch ...pretty fuckin fun..all wind lippy and creamy pow...still really rocky though, seems out of the ordinary for snowbird to do something like that with a 30" base...but hey i am not complaining