TR: Shit For Brains 2/28/09

[forum8fox]

I met my friend Mark at floyd hill at 5:15 with hopes of getting an early start on the long ridge hike. Once we got to loveland pass we saw signs that the pass was closed. We found out they were going to be blasting this morning around 6:30, so we head through the divide and back up the other side of the pass towards A-basin. We start scoping our other ascent option (up behind te C-DOT building) and promptly take off for it with the hopes of making better time. Breaking trail up was tough untill we hit the ridge line.
Just before things got easier:


A-basin:


Things are getting easier:


The view is quite enjoyable:


But try not to look back:


Let's keep moving forward:


Things get interesting up higher:


I decide to take the low road this time:


While Mark takes the high road:


I'm not sure who had it easier, I know we both endured physical and intense mental hardships getting through the rock maze to the top of the line. I know we both had fun down-climbing to a point where we could manage getting our gear sittuated. It consisted of a fair amount of scree and pure ice for a ways. So icy I was using the pick end of my single ice axe and trying to kick steps with the cleats of my snow shoes often sliding backwards. I down climbed into a narrow moat beside a cliff and started to dig out a nice platform to operate from. Mark had it a little easier as he had ski boots to kick steps but no axe which made it scary. Once he arrived we made our platform big enough to have some comfort room and get ready to go. We then ate lunch quickly and let the legs rest for a minute before singaling to Allen that we were ready to descend (flying a space blanked like a flag in the sun, Allen was shooting video in HD from Palavachini and we had no radios).

I was a little nervous about hidden rocks and ice mostly, I was hoping the ice wouldn't go down the entire couloir as I have experienced on other lines before. I made a couple feeler turns and discovered I was making first tracks in pow a little lower, which continued the whole way. I raced down as fast as I could praying I would find a hidden rock or patch of ice along the way. Mark could only manage to snap a couple shot's before I was out of sight:









All the photo's upto this point are thanks to Mark.
Once at the bottom I set up to shoot Mark coming down, I was wishing I had a tripod as I was really far away. I had to zoom in quite a bit and I was having a hard time seeing with all the bright sun light surrounding me. I tried my best to get a couple good ones. Here are the better shot's of Mark coming down:

















A shot of majory:


THE END,
Enjoy!

[montanaskier]

nice work.

[smmokan]

Nice. That would have been a LONG ridge hike from LL Pass...

[Name Redacted]

Nice. That would have been a LONG ridge hike from LL Pass...

Yeah, it's much longer than it looks. If your gonna do that you might as well ski the buttcrack or dave's instead.

Good work. Looks like Marjory is filled in nicely. I'll be hitting up a few of those lines hopfully when I'm in town in two weeks.

[RoanMtnMan]

Excellent work. Saw your tracks. How was the coverage, stability, and snow condition?

[dannyboy]

nice fellas

[highflyingpilot]

Way to slay a classic!

[hawkgt]

solid TR, way to get after it!!!

[shera]

Excellent work. Next time I ski SFB I'm booting from the bottom. That top scramble is FREAKY!!!

Anyway, it's nice to see some good hikes going down right now. Almost makes up for the general lack of snow.

[shera]

Anybody wants to climb and ski between tomorrow and Wednesday, shoot me a pm. It's nice out there.

[grenalds]

That's some interesting axe technique right there, very Hollywood. Nice shots!

[Lone Star]

hgrhghrgrhgrrghrgrhrgrhg going in from the top looks like some scary scary shit. nice work.

[IRideCO]

Ah so jealous. SFB has been on my list of things to do for quite a while. Good work.

[bear]

Thought I read somewhere that SFB slid this weekend. is that true? what were your snow stability observations?

[Ireallyliketoski2]

Way to schralp the gnar.

[forum8fox]

I thought the stability was pretty decent with a few things worth noting. The gully that we started up was great untill we climbed out of it and we were experiencing some sketch conditions as we tried to go up this N facing hill, I sank to my waist in a few spots. Both of us wanted off this sketch snow pack so we crossed over to some rocks instead which gained us the initial ridge. Just 1 more reason to come from the top of the pass. We were making some what slow progress as we were breaking trail. We got to the point of where the photo's begin at about 9:30.

Rushing to the couloir and crossing the numerous gullys on the way to SFB we didn't encounter any slide prone slopes. As mentioned before the top of the cooler was quite "frozen" so we didn't feel too rushed at that point, but still somewhat at the same time as we weren't sure if the snow below was ice or not.

When I dropped in the first turn was the only one that was hard and the rest for the most part was creamy re-fry pow, with varying depth upto maybe a foot if I could even tell . I was going too fast to really know, but I seem to think I sunk in about that much after airing a wind roll mid way down above the choke (mostly in the 6" range would be my guess).

I did notice some slough but I just punched ahead and never noticed it again. I was really cranking some fast turns and nothing but small shallow pockets pulled out(I never even noticed them but Mark mentioned he noticed them on the way down), Mark made more turns and I don't think anything pulled out on him.

[FrontRangeDrummer]

Looks a hell of a lot better than when Adimmen and I skied it last month. Nice TR.

[iscariot]

Thank you.

[powder_prophet]

Nice! What a fun line!!!! Looks a little thinner then last April when I skied it! Probably made that down climing even more spicy than it was for me (and trust me, it was a doozy then!).

[GBB]

Nice work. I saw those tracks from A-basin on Saturday morning, and was wondering who laid them down.

[shera]

I thought the stability was pretty decent with a few things worth noting. The gully that we started up was great untill we climbed out of it and we were experiencing some sketch conditions as we tried to go up this N facing hill, I sank to my waist in a few spots. Both of us wanted off this sketch snow pack so we crossed over to some rocks instead which gained us the initial ridge. Just 1 more reason to come from the top of the pass. We were making some what slow progress as we were breaking trail. We got to the point of where the photo's begin at about 9:30.

Hehe, the great sfb ascent debate...

The only reason to come from the top of the pass is if you're a snowboarder without snowshoes.

[mjskibum]

So that's who made those tracks...

[Ivana Huckalot]

I thought the stability was pretty decent with a few things worth noting. The gully that we started up was great untill we climbed out of it and we were experiencing some sketch conditions as we tried to go up this N facing hill, I sank to my waist in a few spots. Both of us wanted off this sketch snow pack so we crossed over to some rocks instead which gained us the initial ridge. Just 1 more reason to come from the top of the pass.

I've skied SFB a number of times using both approaches mentioned, but just wanted to note that last year I set off a small hard slab while skinning up the steep hill that gains the ridge just above treeline, directly above the CDOT building. I had skinned up the same hill several times, sometimes following a skin track, and seen others climbing in the same spot many times. I got dragged about 100 ft. and was buried to my chest. It's a small feature, but a good one to be very careful around.

[forum8fox]

Hey Mirium I may be a snowboarder but I actually do have snowshoes. I think Ivana makes a valid point, that approach is less safe for sure as your essentially climbing up and out of a terrain trap where as the ridge exposes you to virtually no slide danger. I know I will take the ridge from now on assuming I don't get fucked by C-DOT again. It's just more logical when your really concerned about safe travel in avalanche terrain.

[shera]

Hey Mirium I may be a snowboarder but I actually do have snowshoes. I think Ivana makes a valid point, that approach is less safe for sure as your essentially climbing up and out of a terrain trap where as the ridge exposes you to virtually no slide danger. I know I will take the ridge from now on assuming I don't get fucked by C-DOT again. It's just more logical when your really concerned about safe travel in avalanche terrain.

Fair point.

I'm still booting up it next time. That last scramble is retarded and dangerous. And besides I like some variety and I've already done it from cdot. And the next time I walk that way from the pass I'm gonna ski Dave's wave because I haven't ever done that.

I was just teasing you about snowshoes.

It's three possible routes we're talking about, yes? From the pass, from cdot, and from the bottom of the line. I think it's a really cool debate on how to get to the coolest line in summit county. I think the fastest route is the cdot rib. Don't you?