WASATCH STOKE, CONDITIONS, OBSERVATIONS AND ASSORTED DRIVAL 16-17

[happytimefunbox]

Got a redemption tour from a couple of weeks ago with Bromontana. Good touring with you m, you are definately the best split skier I know!

Lots of wind with the storm last night, there was an angry 6 inches give or take a few inches of grahpooly goodness. Saw some naturals in honeycomb below the cornice and had some cracking in pockets on the ridge to west bowl. Wind was cranking pretty good on the ridge and there was some cross loading further down the bowl than expected but there was nothing that wasnt managable. No pits dug. EB skied fantastical with only sluffs as a concern. Bopped over to days via hideway/quicksilver which skied pretty damn fantastically too. Once there regretted not exercising our option of main days it was fat and not a track innit. Oh well still a great day!

Clouds were giving us the drama on the way up.



Bromon slashing the fuck outta things!

[claymond]

[QUOTE=TheFugitive;4929628]Got a redemption tour from a couple of weeks ago with Bromontana. Good touring with you m, you are definately the best split skier I know!



I demand a split- ski off!!!

[redacted user]

thanks for the motivation & pics!

I demand a split- ski off!!!

Baby Thunder, 12pm. Date: the Ides of March

[happytimefunbox]

thanks for the motivation & pics!



Baby Thunder, 12pm. Date: the Ides of March

Baby thunder liftline is all time split ski terrain!

[mall walker]

pretty day up there

[claymond]

JTrue and I hit Lone Peaks northeast couloir today. I'd never been out there before. Snow was good, the run is sweet, but the approach and exit make ya pay for it

[getoutside]

JTrue and I hit Lone Peaks northeast couloir today. I'd never been out there before. Snow was good, the run is sweet, but the approach and exit make ya pay for it

^ nothing ventured, nothing gained

[happytimefunbox]

Strong work J and Clay!

[JTrue]

Some more shots from Lone, yew!

[Bromontana]

You ascend big willow? Strong work

[happytimefunbox]

You ascend big willow? Strong work

Second this question. I know lone is a big day from any approach and access can be tricky.

Crows feet is a bucket list for me if you ever want to get after it bromon.

[Boissal]

That first pic of JTrue's is definitely in upper BW, ascending the big N facing slope to the cirque's shoulder.
Nice work!

[mogul5480]

Saturday at the bird waaaay overdelivered. 6" came down as Cali cream cheese and skied like it was 2 feet in bookends area. Also is it just me or were there fewer aggressive skiers there than a usual Saturday? Available first tracks down fairly obvious lines in the cirque at like 2 PM.

[JTrue]

You ascend big willow? Strong work

Yeah, gone up that way before in pow, but walking/skinning over re-frozen trail runners footsteps was interesting. Up Big Willow down Bells, should of climbed one of the slopes further east to be more efficient, but we got better views of the Cirque.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

What's mags' recommendation for week-long rentals in the valley? Got a buddy coming out to visit late March and needs boots and skis for the week with the possibility of buying them afterwards if he likes them. Would need to be in the long-ish range, 186-196 as my boy is a big dude.

[happytimefunbox]

What's mags' recommendation for week-long rentals in the valley? Got a buddy coming out to visit late March and needs boots and skis for the week with the possibility of buying them afterwards if he likes them. Would need to be in the long-ish range, 186-196 as my boy is a big dude.

Rent to own or demo to own program kinda deal assuming he doesn't want typical beater rental stuff. Most every shop here has rental rossi super soul 7 type ski as their powder boards but boutique skis who knows. This is a good question and look forward to what you workout. Good luck!

[happytimefunbox]

In other words thanks for the beta on LP jtrue and boissal! Last question I swear 😈 Have you skied the crows feet and would you BW or sf of dry creek as the approach? Qualifier, I know the bushwhack out from the crows is a killer and would prefer a more circuitous approach route if it makes sense to cut that in half. Thanks again you guys are inspiring me to step it up and get things done!

Spending the day drydocked getting shit done in anticipation of this inbound potential 3" of liquid moisture. /antijinx\

Taking a avy savvy first time splitter out tomorrow. Should be interesting with the wind and heavy snow on top of the graupel from fri/sat. Low expectations and low angles and I think we might be suprised with some good turns. If there are any weekday warriors looking to get out this week hit me up...

[Boissal]

Skied the CF earlier this year and I would STRONGLY recommend against approaching from the bottom via the S Fort of Dry Creek. I consider myself a connoisseur when it comes to bushwacking and I have a pretty solid track record of enduring through shitty brush but that approach nearly reduced me to tears. The first bit lures you in with a dirt road then and what resembles a decent trail and by the time the brush really starts to get mean you've invested too much time to turn around. It took us over 2.5 hours to cover about 1800' of vert in the bottom of the drainage and we didn't even get to the toe of the main slide path. We had to bust out of the creek bed when it got too deep and skin up some really steep and densely treed slopes until we hit tolerable skinning terrain at 7600' after 3.5 hours of soul-crushing work (for 2300'). The rest was manageable but by then we were pretty much over it.

Big willow is a slog but at least there's minimal brush and it's quite scenic. You also get a bonus shot before getting to the top of the CF. The only downside is that the skinner won't be in if you want to ski more than one of the toes.

Edit: here's an idea of what you're dealing with in the SF of DC. There was a ton of snow yet we dealt with lots of open water. I fell off the rocky choke on the way down while hanging on to a handful of shrubs. Broke the tongue of my boots, got whipped across the face a bunch, yanked a shoulder catching a pole in a tree, good times!!

[Skidog]

Skied the CF earlier this year and I would STRONGLY recommend against approaching from the bottom via the S Fort of Dry Creek. I consider myself a connoisseur when it comes to bushwacking and I have a pretty solid track record of enduring through shitty brush but that approach nearly reduced me to tears. The first bit lures you in with a dirt road then and what resembles a decent trail and by the time the brush really starts to get mean you've invested too much time to turn around. It took us over 2.5 hours to cover about 1800' of vert in the bottom of the drainage and we didn't even get to the toe of the main slide path. We had to bust out of the creek bed when it got too deep and skin up some really steep and densely treed slopes until we hit tolerable skinning terrain at 7600' after 3.5 hours of soul-crushing work (for 2300'). The rest was manageable but by then we were pretty much over it.

Big willow is a slog but at least there's minimal brush and it's quite scenic. You also get a bonus shot before getting to the top of the CF. The only downside is that the skinner won't be in if you want to ski more than one of the toes.

Edit: here's an idea of what you're dealing with in the SF of DC. There was a ton of snow yet we dealt with lots of open water. I fell off the rocky choke on the way down while hanging on to a handful of shrubs. Broke the tongue of my boots, got whipped across the face a bunch, yanked a shoulder catching a pole in a tree, good times!!

Holy fuck. You needed a chain saw. Good on ya for ensuring that without killing yourselves or each other.

[happytimefunbox]

Jumpen jesus on a pogo stick that is sufferage squared. Thanks for the beta boissal. Fuck man next time just lie to me LOL

[MMP]

Saturday at the bird waaaay overdelivered. 6" came down as Cali cream cheese and skied like it was 2 feet in bookends area. Also is it just me or were there fewer aggressive skiers there than a usual Saturday? Available first tracks down fairly obvious lines in the cirque at like 2 PM.

we were there and agree that it was pretty tame and uncrowded; skied the upper Cirque before 2, and Silver Fox early. 1theNaton gave us a proper tour before bailing to take a walk with his wife and baby (truthfully I was pretty crushed already). Baldy Traverse and bootpack skied well after the top wind affected part.

Saturday around 3 we watched a party of 3 descend Superior while having a loud Grateful Dead ( Providence 87) powered, IPA, tailgate in the Wildcat lot. If that was you, very nice.

Good to meet Bobmc on the Tram, turns next time Bob?

[JTrue]

Jumpen jesus on a pogo stick that is sufferage squared. Thanks for the beta boissal. Fuck man next time just lie to me LOL

I don't know, on a bigger snow year it sucked, but didn't look that bad. The nice part is you will find the trail at the bottom from your tracks on the way in, otherwise you will most likely thrash all the way out. Cool to ski once, but imho, once is enough.

[lhitchner]

FOUND -- a nice, black balaclava by Smith Optics

Sunday (2/5) afternoon about 2:30 PM on the skin track up from the bottom of East Bowl to the ridge line between East Bowl Pass and Davenport Hill. I think I saw the guy who dropped it, a solo skier who was about 5 minutes ahead of me on the climb. Hoped I would catch him at the top, but no one was there when I reached it.

PM me if it's yours, or if you think you know who dropped it.

I also saw a nice single Black Diamond ski glove, color natural (orangish brown) that some one must have found. It was left at the Grizzly Gulch parking area on the last finger of snow to the South of the main road between the main road and the maintenance road down to Albion. Well, if I posted this on Sunday night, you might have been able to go back and pick it up. But, by now I guess someone either already took it or else it's buried in 6" of new snow (with a foot or more to come soon).

[BobMc]

Good to meet Bobmc on the Tram, turns next time Bob?

Nice to meet you as well. Sorry about not making a run with ya, I had just gotten back from Colorado and my mind was quite clouded. I told Joe to shoot you my number if you were going to be up there Sunday as well.

[tBatt]

Pretty underwhelming 20-30"... Better luck next time. Not dealing with super deep wind slab, so that's cool, I guess.