WASATCH STOKE, CONDITIONS, OBSERVATIONS and ASSORTED DRIVAL 19-20

[oldskibum]

Probably going to get hate for this one but...

From a full time patroller and canyon resident perspective, this past week has been frustrating to say the least.
First off, why not call out some of these folks making poor decisions and putting possible stress on the healthcare system. These Instagram heroes see themselves as avalanche professionals, but if a young patroller was making high risk decisions or doing stupid things at times where the system is already stressed, they would absolutely hear about it. I would love to see the UAC step up and be a little more direct.
Look at the problem like developing a hazard forecast. If there was a low probability of triggering something but the consequences were extremely high (deep persistent slab), you would really think twice and probably back off. Now look at ski touring right now. Even a small tweaked knee on a mellow slope is a giant manpower suck for both us as WBR, the Sheriff SAR, Unified Fire, and potentially an air resource. Say the ski tourer was exposed to Covid but did not know. Now they have potentially introduced the virus to many people from many agencies which will pull them out of service for two weeks at best, and hopefully they did not spread the virus around the community or to co workers unknowingly as they respond to other calls.

If the biggest impact that Covid19 has on your life is that your ski season ends a few weeks early, consider yourself among the luckiest people on earth. Snow will come next year, the mountains will still be there. Put the community first.

Well articulated, hope there's no hate for sobering truth! Many of us are thinking this, any day could be our last touring opportunity to some favorite places.
Alta groomed a beautiful 50 foot wide path to top of Collins yesterday, enabling comfortable distance between touring parties. Thank you Alta! Most people seemed to be allowing space. And an Alta Sheriff seemed to be keeping a close eye on parking lot shenanigans.
It would be so great if people would kick it back a notch, but competition for "classic" lines seems to remain high. After most of Baldy was well skied, someone sent it off that big cornice overhanging Perla's. Geez.
I hope your words reach some people that have not been listening so far. Your last three sentences could be in bold letters at every trailhead. Thanks.

[CC_skier]

Probably going to get hate for this one but...

From a full time patroller and canyon resident perspective, this past week has been frustrating to say the least.
First off, why not call out some of these folks making poor decisions and putting possible stress on the healthcare system. These Instagram heroes see themselves as avalanche professionals, but if a young patroller was making high risk decisions or doing stupid things at times where the system is already stressed, they would absolutely hear about it. I would love to see the UAC step up and be a little more direct.
Look at the problem like developing a hazard forecast. If there was a low probability of triggering something but the consequences were extremely high (deep persistent slab), you would really think twice and probably back off. Now look at ski touring right now. Even a small tweaked knee on a mellow slope is a giant manpower suck for both us as WBR, the Sheriff SAR, Unified Fire, and potentially an air resource. Say the ski tourer was exposed to Covid but did not know. Now they have potentially introduced the virus to many people from many agencies which will pull them out of service for two weeks at best, and hopefully they did not spread the virus around the community or to co workers unknowingly as they respond to other calls.

If the biggest impact that Covid19 has on your life is that your ski season ends a few weeks early, consider yourself among the luckiest people on earth. Snow will come next year, the mountains will still be there. Put the community first.

^^^ Couldn’t have been said better. Tahoe skier. Sierra Avy Center has been pretty upfront about sticking to mellow terrain during times like this (not to mention we have a weird persistent slab problem). With the way the community has responded here, I cannot believe that there are people out there triggering huge slides with everything else going on in the world. Completely asinine to be skiing any big lines right now, regardless of what state you’re in or “how good of a skier you are.” If you cant get your outdoor fix by skiing mellow or just fuckin walking outside, you should probs re-evaluate what’s getting you out there in the first place. Sorry to drop in on another locales thread, but with a pandemic, one persons activities can have effects across the country.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[skifishbum]

Probably going to get hate for this one but...

From a full time patroller and canyon resident perspective, this past week has been frustrating to say the least.
First off, why not call out some of these folks making poor decisions and putting possible stress on the healthcare system. These Instagram heroes see themselves as avalanche professionals, but if a young patroller was making high risk decisions or doing stupid things at times where the system is already stressed, they would absolutely hear about it. I would love to see the UAC step up and be a little more direct.
Look at the problem like developing a hazard forecast. If there was a low probability of triggering something but the consequences were extremely high (deep persistent slab), you would really think twice and probably back off. Now look at ski touring right now. Even a small tweaked knee on a mellow slope is a giant manpower suck for both us as WBR, the Sheriff SAR, Unified Fire, and potentially an air resource. Say the ski tourer was exposed to Covid but did not know. Now they have potentially introduced the virus to many people from many agencies which will pull them out of service for two weeks at best, and hopefully they did not spread the virus around the community or to co workers unknowingly as they respond to other calls.

If the biggest impact that Covid19 has on your life is that your ski season ends a few weeks early, consider yourself among the luckiest people on earth. Snow will come next year, the mountains will still be there. Put the community first.

u know I gots no hate only respect and thanks
theres a reason why soli lds was my fog last day aside from a up the road millcreek with the dog
stoked it was with mags
part of a problem or solution
same goes with the gram addiction and need for followers or supporting it
bossial and mallwalker thanks
somewhere in the distance crackheads smiling or cackling
thanks for that link the fritztrips archives
either youse want a free phantom wax or need that coreshot fixed
or im in garden mode so if ya want any seeds rhubarb strwbery, jostberry ,blackberry or hops starts hit me up
same with the contributors of other than drivel
one of you two or tfw oughtta start the thread next year
sorry htfb but....
stay safe and outta my casting distance

[Boissal]

Guy on superior was carried over the middle cliff band and walked out. Between that, the cardiac ridge airbag deployment and the mount Ogden slides it’s amazing that that nobody is hurt. Seeing a lot of new out of state plates and faces in lcc today. Sensitive wind slabs on the west faces. If people keep pushing it like this we’re going to lose our release. The authorities are closely monitoring all this and word is they aren’t impressed. A backcountry rescue will put a lot of pressure on the system and numbers are really reduced for man power. You don’t want to end up in the ER right now. The snow is fantastic and there’s plenty of safe places to ski. No need to be pushing the boundaries. People have got used to superior being controlled by the howitzer, but we haven’t shot it since the 50 hour interlodge.

There's also a long winded report of a party of 3 getting caught by a wind slab on Chipman yesterday. Guy breaking trail managed to self-arrest but his 2 buddies went for a 600' ride which included going over a 50' cliff. Miraculously everyone ended up on top with no injuries and all their gear. They were not in a good place for self-extraction, it's a long and heinous slog out of there...

I tried going up high today and threw the towel at the first shooting crack. The wind did some major damage in the alpine unfortunately. I retreated to the trees and had a grand old time. Saw 2 people, we chatted from 15' apart. My take on keeping it mellow was not falling into the LCC creek on a sketchy crossing. And avoiding sending this dreamy pillow line into the unknown, something I'm rather proud of:



The WP lot was as big a junkshow as ever with jabronis piled on top of each other and at least 1 Audi hopelessly stuck off the pavement. Lots of out of state plates and people talking about big lines while gesturing in their general direction. Hype feed hype I guess. Spotted some skittles building a kicker about 2 minutes up the skinner, one of them nearly took out a guy who was hauling down the exit.

Fuck that noise, bring in the corn and the skinny skis, I've skied enough pow for the year and I'm tired of freezing my balls off while my face gets exfoliated by ice crystals. Without a beard that shit gets painful.

[mall walker]

Without a beard that shit gets painful.

yeah what happened? I barely recognized you last time coming off Red Baldy. I downright did not recognize brutah in Porter due to lack of beard.

bossial and mallwalker thanks

I've meaning to hit you up for this or that for a couple years now but it's almost criminal on my part we haven't cross paths by now... once all this dust settles for sure

[skifishbum]

im sure we crossed tracks
i just dawn patrol to work and ski afternoons these days
im hopin I can stay employed
and not have to go up canyon
and gits paid to help roof the powderponds damn mnt havens sick gnars
till the health care system not burdened

[wra]

Been lurking for quite some time but...



still out there and still skiing.



Mostly surface sluffing on the BCC side. Probably not a good idea to stop in the middle of a run and discuss the coolness factor during times like these.
Been ski touring for 45 years or so and I'll go in the a.m. onward till sick or arrested, trying to avoid others and the "evil doer".

[Adski]

WRA! Good to see you here

[dfinn]

AF skied really well today. Only saw 3 other people. Minor wind slabs at the very top of CF but only a couple of inches deep and not really moving all that much.





Does this have a name? Would love to go back and get it from the top. We only went to the choke.

[mall walker]

well someone in beartrap had to get SAR evac’d...

[happytimefunbox]

one of you two or tfw oughtta start the thread next year
sorry htfb but....
stay safe and outta my casting distance

No worries here buddy

[snowaddict91]

Pleasant morning to be in the mountains. Crisp for the end of March! I can't get over the eeryness of this all though.

[lhitchner]

well someone in beartrap had to get SAR evac’d...

It was a snowboarder. I think he broke a femur (not confirmed) and had several other injuries. Here's the SL County Sheriff's SAR report of their Facebook page. Another report I read somewhere stated that he crashed into a tree.

https://www.facebook.com/slcosar/posts/2600005466907390

[Phall]

Had to walk a little farther but only saw 3 others at a distance once we got close to the objective. Very good snow.






Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[snowaddict91]

Salt Lake County has implemented a stay at home order effective tomorrow.

Skiing is considered exercise, right?

[mall walker]

Salt Lake County has implemented a stay at home order effective tomorrow.

Skiing is considered exercise, right?

until the police tell me otherwise

[altacoup]

I’d say Alta is a recreation center so I’d expect uphill traffic to close

[snowaddict91]

until the police tell me otherwise

[jtran10]

until the police tell me otherwise

Had a great time with the dog up porter yesterday. Only went to 7300 but had a fun tour and pretty good snow for being that low.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[jtran10]

But yea can we legally ski alone still?

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[altacoup]

My reading is that skiing is still possible but I imagine that all public restrooms in the canyons will be closed. Now the ball will be in the court of the watershed

[tgapp]

well someone in beartrap had to get SAR evac’d...

do you have details on that? sounds pretty gnarly.

went up to hit rock and roll on red baldy but got spooked by touchy conditions, and didn't want to stress the healthcare system. skied off towards the lake instead on mellower, less wind-affected terrain.

[altacoup]

He rode into an aspen and broke his femur. Was fairly close to the road. Salt lake county SAR got him out with no need to involve WBR

[zion zig zag]

Work has been pretty stressful lately with the Covids and I haven't had my normal ability to adjust schedule for snow, so I've had some pretty serious FOMO this week. Snowbasin and normal backcountry trailheads in Ogden have been mobbed the last couple of days so I had to get a little creative. Found great snow and didn't see a soul. Pretty rewarding to just get out somewhere obscure with the dog really.

[tgapp]

He rode into an aspen and broke his femur. Was fairly close to the road. Salt lake county SAR got him out with no need to involve WBR

Geez, I can't imagine going fast enough down beartrap to slam an aspen and break your femur - especally close to the road.. Hope he's okay.