Snow for the Euros.

[bobinch]

Bluebird day in Verbier and great conditions


Mont Fort North Face

[sqikunst]

Fuck I am going to be eating shit for that gaptasteric comment for awhile. ^^looked sick in Verb today. Vertigo skiing today for us thought it would clear around lunch but it didnt got in the car drove back and then it started to clear. Snow is still super light but was hitting a refrozen chunk every now and again.

[verbier61]

Verb north faces are still good, others are so and so. But so far it has been a memorable winter.

[bobinch]

Anyone have anymore info on the slide on Bec des Etagnes? I saw the evac this morning, looked big and scary.

The slab release line was still visible running right across the top face. Assume it released as they were high on the boot pack and dropped them onto the flat intermediate plateau which would have acted as a terrain trap. Very frightening that released on an avi risk 2 day. We were light and quick on the exposed section of the mont Fort traverse with that in mind....

[Ripzalot]

Good times today

Attachment 132835

Dont forget the meathucking...

[CarveMan]

jumpturn - you seem to be in town for much longer than your usual January sojourn! What are your dates?

I arrive March 6th until April 1.

[LC]

Skied Poubelle (GM) today. Sun crust the whole way down, getting progressively worse towards the bottom; not nice! Pas De Chevre was breakable crust too. Stick to shaded aspects until the next snow!

Blog post: http://www.lornecameron.com/2013/pou...retty-rubbish/

[Franz Klammer]

mysterious encounter with law & order:

taking skis off after finishing tree run that leaves you at the road some distance from the lifts. sort of standing in the road a bit. police car drives up and stops, rolls down window (we are thinking we will get told off for standing in the road or skiing in the trees or something):
police dude: "hi...!"
"hi."
"what brand skis are those?"
"down skis"
"is that what they're called?"
"yes."
"so you both have down skis?"
"yes."

If I had a dollar for every time that people ask me about my Down skis ... In fact, Geo should really make business cards to hand out. Thinking of which, I should really suggest that.

Fabulous pictures in this thread. I am so so jealous.

[verbier61]

>1 million visits, near by 500 pages.
Snow for the euros.

[CarveMan]

>1 million visits, near by 500 pages.
Snow for the euros.

Best thread on TGR. Thanks euromags!

[Incompetent Boob]

A few more from yesterday for the euros.

[Orash111]

Showed a couple friends (first time in cham) the cosmique to para face and then the rond to the bosson glacier yesterday. Had a blast.

Today we skied steep trees and tree couloirs with pillows in one of the best tree skiing spots I know of in switzerland (closed this season so we toured). My pup had an awesome time and then slept in the car while we went up for seconds. Maybe nstadie will post some of the pictures he took. My camera is broken.

Work hard all week until the next storm comes in.

[Ripzalot]

orash, champex? avy death there yesterday...

http://genevalunch.com/2013/02/16/st...hampex-update/

[Ripzalot]

>1 million visits, near by 500 pages.
Snow for the euros.

dang, i guess we should start talking in code again.

[Incompetent Boob]

^^That second pic in the link looks nasty.
Interesting to note that the solo tourer (who died) had his airbag exposed on top of the slide.

[verbier61]

Avi risk 2......
C'mon :-/
Avi risk means nothing.

[ulty_guy]

LC- yeah, I've learned to time both of those lines, they can be hell if you get them wrong. I've kicked plates of crust down that thing before, not fun!

Everything on that aspect (incl Rectiligne) need to be hit when cold and before any sun gets on them (or after a spring cycle which is also fine). I've missed a pretty serious avy on Rectiligne on a spring pow day by about 5 minutes, it still makes me feel queasy. Skied Pas de Chevre on Saturday first thing, but should've been on the Midi instead from the tales (although I didn't have much option due to baby etc etc etc).

Toured Glacier Bron from Le Tour yesterday, I have to say it was the tits as it almost always is. Hero heli ski terrain.

There's an unstable layer in the first 20 cm of the snowpack right now, but it's not moving very fast or far. Kicked off a few sluffy slabs this wknd, but nothing serious. Hopefully we'll get a bit of consolidation before the next snow.

[Orash111]

orash, champex? avy death there yesterday...

http://genevalunch.com/2013/02/16/st...hampex-update/

We heard that on the radio when we were driving back actually. We did not see any avalanche activity directly at the ski resort of champex. The very top layer of snow was sluffy (in a very fun way) on the very steep stuff, but was not very deep, nor was slabby at least anywhere in the trees where we skiied two runs.

I am curious if the avy was off the backside of the Breya peak on the south face. I saw a couple tracks off the back when we reached the top of the lift the 1st time and then also saw some spots were the snow had glide cracked to form holes and then had been snowed over again slightly. In light of last weeks avalanches, I had already decided that we would not ski sun drenched faces.

Snow was perfect though to be ripable pow without being too deep and dangerous though, so we could ride steeps that have not seen any skiier activity this season. My pup was loving it as well, because it meant he could get faceshots without struggling too hard at all and could just do jumps down the steep slopes as well and not have to chomp across mellow terrain exhausted.

Note, there was a layer of surface hoar most present at 2000-2200m (topped out at 2200m) on the north faces we rode. Not too big of crystals, but definitely a 1-2cm layer. Hope we get a little bit of warm (but no rain) right before the weekend, so it doesn't get buried under this next storm.

[Orash111]

Trip report on a day trip skiing one of the the Dents du Midi couloirs on the border of Vaud and Valais Switzerland and just behind the Aiguille Rouge mountain range in chamonix. It is from a few weeks back, but I finally opened an online account, so I could upload and then properly embed the images and make a nice TR. Check it out: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...n-26th-2013%29


A couple photos here to motivate people to click the link for the full TR:

[IridePow]

A few recent comments suggest that the avy forecast was wrong/misleading.
So let's try to quickly reiterate what avy risk level 2 means:
http://www.slf.ch/schneeinfo/zusatzi...uropa/index_EN

- The snowpack is only moderately well bonded on some steep slopes, otherwise well bonded in general.
- Mostly favourable conditions. Careful route selection, especially on steep slopes of indicated aspects and altitude zones.

I catch myself thinking lots of times: level 2 --> almost anything rideable.
But actually you still need to be aware of the especially mentioned slopes/aspects and wander very carefully into terrain that has almost seen no skiers compaction during the season.

I am not trying to armchair quarterback the decisions that have been made before those accidents happen.
And I do certainly not know all the places nor details of the locations where the accidents happen.
But just from the few pics I have seen in the press, I got the impression that the locations probably have been mentioned in the bulletin (for example: steep, near ridges, transition to thinner snowpack etc.)

Let's also keep in mind that about 30% of the accidents happen when there is level 2.
Now you could say: just keep the level 3 for a longer time, so people are more careful. But that probably would be counterproductive, since people would ride certain slopes on level 3 and find out it does not rip, so at the end everybody rides everything on level 3 also.

Let's just try to take a step backwards every once in a while and ride a slightly more moderate slope and stay alive to enjoy the deep fluff another day.
(Having said all that: I rode awesome powder this past weekend without leaning too much out the window (I think).... and it was still lot's of fun. Will probably post some pics later.)

- edit:
Not sure if that was a fitting first post on page 500.
But hey.... if it helps to have someone rethink their decision of dropping into "that dangerous slope" and keeps him alive, then it maybe still was worth that space.

[ulty_guy]

It's always fitting and should always be in the mind.....stayin' alive!

[Hicks]

So as we get closer to end of this month where to go for a last hooray?

[IridePow]

On Saturday some lift assisted warm up runs


Even the southern slopes provide some very dry, fluffy powder; however not bottomless since there was a crust about 30 cm underneath.


Afterwards we are trenching our way to the northern slopes. Unfortunately at that point the clouds started to move in. So there is no photo evidence of the face shot galore that unfolded after this hike.


On Sunday making our way over the glacier.


Max soaking in the Glarner alps.


2400 vertical meters of powder paradise. Priceless!

[Marius]

if you want my educated guess, sitting around and beeing lazy is always a good option. so it was today.

[ClarkleberryFinn]

Did some mellow skinning and skiing around Patscherkofel this morning, still some very nice snow about. Quite a lot of surface hoar around though...