WASATCH STOKE, CONDITIONS, OBSERVATIONS and ASSORTED DRIVAL 20-21

[PaulC08]

Not sure, dibs had some connection in last years thread to them. From wasatch backcountry alliance FB March 2020: Have you been in Cardiff Fork this winter and noticed a snowcat up there? It's been a hot topic amongst many user groups, be it skiers, splitboarders, hikers, or snowshoers. Big Cottonwood residents have been calling it divisive, not to mention it's loud and now the road smells like diesel. One thing is for certain: the cat operation - which has been carting skiers up without a permit - is illegal.

The reason it's illegal is that it's deviating off the mine road - which is used by mining claim property owners and hikers/skiers to access the drainage. While it is legal for the snowcat to go up the road, the snowcat has cut a massively banked road all the way to the top of George's Bowl - inordinately breaking the permit regulations of staying on the road. It has also deviated from private land and has crossed National Forest land, not to mention the dangers of creating cut blocks and associated hazards on what was a popular and safe touring area for backcountry skiers.

The Forest Service has notified WBA of their intention to stop the snowcat from violating its permit, but we want them to hear from you too. Have you seen the snowcat? If so, what has your experience and/or interaction been? Let WBA and the Forest Service know via email (info@wasatchbackcountryalliance.org and rebecca.hotze@usda.gov) so we can help fight this illegal operation.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Interesting. Did George’s Bowl on 1/5 and had the cat pass me on the road on the way up. Two guys were inside, no ski gear, but good to now have the context. Was super confused when I looked behind me and saw that thing coming...


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[Skidog]

10:30 at night in January and it is raining! I will burn some skis tomorrow to get this shit fixed!

funny I cant recall the year? Maybe 2011? 2010? Nasty rain event all the way up to 10K on Martin Luther King weekend. Screwed the conditions for weeks.

[Sirshredalot]

funny I cant recall the year? Maybe 2011? 2010? Nasty rain event all the way up to 10K on Martin Luther King weekend. Screwed the conditions for weeks.

2011, I think. I remember it pissed rain on me at Alta. It was an actual good snow year, though!

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Phall]

Yep, Jan 2011, that crust was around for a while. Had a nasty slide coming into the amphitheater from the zen traverse, couldn’t hold an edge.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[brutah]

10:30 at night in January and it is raining! I will burn some skis tomorrow to get this shit fixed!

it was drizzling going over parley's yesterday morning as well

AND FUCK THE 2011 MLK RAIN CRUST. 2011-2012 wasn't that good of a snow year, it was a dry fall and start to winter and then when it came there was that rain crust that killed people. Snow totals were 390" according to alta, I personally don't consider anything over 400" a good snow year.

[alev]

MLK rain was Jan 2011. The 2011-2012 season (my first out there) sucked (by your standards) but I do not think we had a Jan 2012 rain crust. But wasn't 2011-2012 a good snow year? Wasn't that why I moved out there in the first place?

[Skidog]

Yep, Jan 2011, that crust was around for a while. Had a nasty slide coming into the amphitheater from the zen traverse, couldn’t hold an edge.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

watched 2 friends take what appeared might be a slide for life at the top of stonecrusher that year. Few weeks after that rain some storms dropped snow. It looked nice but the first to drop immediately slid out and went for a ride. Second fella said he saw a pocket he could get purchase on for a turn...NOPE...ride too...they went about 3/4 of the way down. I turns around and took the tree line between stone and jitter and the turns were actually sublime. Cut back in to make sure they were ok and we continued the day...what a weird year that was.

[Skidog]

it was drizzling going over parley's yesterday morning as well

AND FUCK THE 2011 MLK RAIN CRUST. 2011-2012 wasn't that good of a snow year, it was a dry fall and start to winter and then when it came there was that rain crust that killed people. Snow totals were 390" according to alta, I personally don't consider anything over 400" a good snow year.

Glad to see people recall that year as fondly as I do....it turned out alright after a few weeks, but i dont think it was anything special snow wise that season....

[jtran10]

It sounds like you all need to learn how to ski

[brutah]

My years were mixed up as were my crust events. But I stand by my statement that the 2011-2012 season sucked. my bad

[Lone Star]

the first storm after the 2011 MLK rain, patrol opened up the tower 10 traverse across west rustler and stationed a patroller by the saddle to warn people that although it was open, it was sketchy and 'not recommended.'

A bunch of us ate lunch on Germ Rock and watched dozens of people try to hold contour and then start tumbling. Super fun and funny to watch; luckily there was plenty of blower on top of the crust to cushion the fall. Another great memory from that storm was using 1990s skinny skis to skate traverse uphill--- way funnerer and faster than skinning!!

it then snowed like another bajillion feet and that terrible crust which would have ruined many a season at many a resort was just a memory of a few whacky days.

[Boissal]

watched 2 friends take what appeared might be a slide for life at the top of stonecrusher that year. Few weeks after that rain some storms dropped snow. It looked nice but the first to drop immediately slid out and went for a ride. Second fella said he saw a pocket he could get purchase on for a turn...NOPE...ride too...they went about 3/4 of the way down. I turns around and took the tree line between stone and jitter and the turns were actually sublime. Cut back in to make sure they were ok and we continued the day...what a weird year that was.

Watched a similar situation unfold in the Needle with 2 buddies. Got into Hogum from the bottom and saw no sign of the crust and a good amount of fresh snow so we ran up the Needle thinking we were the smartest bros in the range. The crust made itself known about 1/3 of the way up but the booting was still easy so we persisted all the way to the base of the upper couloir. I think we all knew it was a bad call and there wasn't enough snow to really isolate us from the crust but we kept telling ourselves things would be better on the N aspect (Coalpit Headwall was the objective).
The second we got to the big cliff band the angle kicked back a bit and the booting went from casual to front-pointing on unbreakable crust. There was no discussion, we just looked at each other and transitioned.

The skiing was decent at first, you could feel the crust on short turns but it wasn't noticeable at speed making bigger turns. I got into the apron with a bit of heat and hit a patch of glaze that damn near took me out. I could barely hold an edge and it took all I had to stay upright and straightline to what looked like an area of soft snow. Turns out it was about 1/2" of windblown over more ice and by the time I managed to stop I was all the way to the base of Dresden. I turned around to warn my partners in case they hadn't realized why I suddenly decided to stop making turns and was just in time to see the first one wipe out at the exact same post. He actually gained speed once he was on his ass but managed to self-arrest with a whippet. I was traversing back to him when our other buddy wiped out in the exact same spot, almost took out whippet-guy, and continued on his merry way heading for the cheese-grader cliffs at the bottom of the apron. He miraculously got hooked on a small wind drift and stopped just before the point of no return. About 400' of vert on his.
I actually put crampons on to downboot the rest of the apron that day. I'm always more comfortable on skis than on foot in steep terrain but that day turned my world upside down.

Edit - definitely winter 10-11, year of the everlasting crusts. Started with a mega bang, skied Lake Chute in nipple-deep pow and was late for Thanskgiving dinner. Things went downhill after that.

[Benneke10]

https://brightonresort.com/Documents...l%20Travel.pdf

Brighton is green light for uphill travel now. I noticed on their uphill travel map they threaten to boot your car if you park in their lot. Does anybody know if they mean business here?

[telefreewasatch]

Watched a similar situation unfold in the Needle with 2 buddies. Got into Hogum from the bottom and saw no sign of the crust and a good amount of fresh snow so we ran up the Needle thinking we were the smartest bros in the range. The crust made itself known about 1/3 of the way up but the booting was still easy so we persisted all the way to the base of the upper couloir. I think we all knew it was a bad call and there wasn't enough snow to really isolate us from the crust but we kept telling ourselves things would be better on the N aspect (Coalpit Headwall was the objective).
The second we got to the big cliff band the angle kicked back a bit and the booting went from casual to front-pointing on unbreakable crust. There was no discussion, we just looked at each other and transitioned.

The skiing was decent at first, you could feel the crust on short turns but it wasn't noticeable at speed making bigger turns. I got into the apron with a bit of heat and hit a patch of glaze that damn near took me out. I could barely hold an edge and it took all I had to stay upright and straightline to what looked like an area of soft snow. Turns out it was about 1/2" of windblown over more ice and by the time I managed to stop I was all the way to the base of Dresden. I turned around to warn my partners in case they hadn't realized why I suddenly decided to stop making turns and was just in time to see the first one wipe out at the exact same post. He actually gained speed once he was on his ass but managed to self-arrest with a whippet. I was traversing back to him when our other buddy wiped out in the exact same spot, almost took out whippet-guy, and continued on his merry way heading for the cheese-grader cliffs at the bottom of the apron. He miraculously got hooked on a small wind drift and stopped just before the point of no return. About 400' of vert on his.
I actually put crampons on to downboot the rest of the apron that day. I'm always more comfortable on skis than on foot in steep terrain but that day turned my world upside down.

Edit - definitely winter 10-11, year of the everlasting crusts. Started with a mega bang, skied Lake Chute in nipple-deep pow and was late for Thanskgiving dinner. Things went downhill after that.

Good story,
good memory,
great photo rep. of that event.
Brutah you're right, 11/12 was drought.
Working Snowbird 10 /11, I laid off shooting new snow for up to a month after that event.
Paid huge dividends. The new snow stuck.
Couldn't have opened the terrain we didn't shoot anyhow...
too dangerous before 1 - 3 weeks of snow stuck to it, depending.
Great skiing rest of the winter after that hiatus.
How much snow / water did we get that April / May?
Acted as rescue for John schussing the Pipeline on Memorial day.
Very few deep slides in the range on that layer late in the year.
Had many scratching their heads.

[jmedslc]

https://brightonresort.com/Documents...l%20Travel.pdf

Brighton is green light for uphill travel now. I noticed on their uphill travel map they threaten to boot your car if you park in their lot. Does anybody know if they mean business here?

yeah the light went green last week when they got Great Western open. Now that night skiing is open, i assume you're be good to go to park in the lot with the masses. on sunday nights tho, you prob wanna stick to the guidelines as night ski is closed sundays.

i'll also note that while i haven't been spoken to this season about it (admittedly only skinned at brighton a few times), last year they busted serious balls about skiing the corduroy down. i got verbally abused several times by cat drivers for skiing the untracked (cord).

good luck

[altacoup]

Good story,
good memory,
great photo rep. of that event.
Brutah you're right, 11/12 was drought.
Working Snowbird 10 /11, I laid off shooting new snow for up to a month after that event.
Paid huge dividends. The new snow stuck.
Couldn't have opened the terrain we didn't shoot anyhow...
too dangerous before 1 - 3 weeks of snow stuck to it, depending.
Great skiing rest of the winter after that hiatus.
How much snow / water did we get that April / May?
Acted as rescue for John schussing the Pipeline on Memorial day.
Very few deep slides in the range on that layer late in the year.
Had many scratching their heads.

I remember the bird skiing much better than Alta after said event due to your strategies. West facing terrain at Alta still had ice layer in isolated areas 2 months later. Titus asked me at dinner one night why he hadn’t seen me skiing, I told him I was only skiing the bird because the snow was better.


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

[Boissal]

Good story,
good memory,
great photo rep. of that event.
Brutah you're right, 11/12 was drought.
Working Snowbird 10 /11, I laid off shooting new snow for up to a month after that event.
Paid huge dividends. The new snow stuck.
Couldn't have opened the terrain we didn't shoot anyhow...
too dangerous before 1 - 3 weeks of snow stuck to it, depending.
Great skiing rest of the winter after that hiatus.
How much snow / water did we get that April / May?
Acted as rescue for John schussing the Pipeline on Memorial day.
Very few deep slides in the range on that layer late in the year.
Had many scratching their heads.

I do remember that despite the crust being the textbook perfect layer of doom for massive deep slabs nothing really happened that year. Right after the rain it started snowing non-stop with manageable dumps every 3 days or so and the crust faded from memory. And it didn't stop snowing until June. I don't think I ever saw the range look that plastered. The TriChutes were gone, all of RedTop was a big white face, no hints of the 50' deep gullies that are there in the summer. NW Pfeif was a casual outing without a rope, there wasn't even a hint of the cliff.
Here's a shot of the Pfeiff not long after the rain, anything that isn't dead vertical was coated in ice or rime. Beautiful.



And Brutah's right, 11/12 was massively dry, in fact it's looking slightly worse than this season at the Bird which is hard to believe. 75% drop in SWE from one year to the next. Feast or famine around here...

[telefreewasatch]

Good story,
good memory,
great photo rep. of that event.
Brutah you're right, 11/12 was drought.
Working Snowbird 10 /11, I laid off shooting new snow for up to a month after that event.
Paid huge dividends. The new snow stuck.
Couldn't have opened the terrain we didn't shoot anyhow...
too dangerous before 1 - 3 weeks of snow stuck to it, depending.
Great skiing rest of the winter after that hiatus.
How much snow / water did we get that April / May?
Acted as rescue for John schussing the Pipeline on Memorial day.
Very few deep slides in the range on that layer late in the year.
Had many scratching their heads.

Prolly shouldn't take too much credit.
Snow came in a few inches at a time for 3 weeks.
Kinda perfect for what I was trying...

[telefreewasatch]

^^^ from my memories, first year of zone 5 right? OMNOMNOMNOMNOM

And "fat as a bulldog".
Had to wrench some arms, but if ever there was a year...

[Lone Star]

And "fat as a bulldog".
Had to wrench some arms, but if ever there was a year...

F. Just deleted my edit. My great memories from that season from Comma eclipsed all the negative ice things. Except for a friend sliding on an ice crust patch getting into zone 5 and breaking her arm right before one of the best pow runs of her life.

[Phall]

F. Just deleted my edit. My great memories from that season from Comma eclipsed all the negative ice things. Except for a friend sliding on an ice crust patch getting into zone 5 and breaking her arm right before one of the best pow runs of her life.

Being young and dumb, the amount of time I spent skiing and accessing zone 5 from the bird that season while having a dual pass in my pocket boggles my mind.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[Lone Star]

^^ coupla gems that year when Collins was broke and you could Kitty-PeruvianMineral->Baldy to the High-T in the same time as all the poor sobs going to sunnysugarloaf. When Alta quit letting Collins shit the bed on huge days that really devalued the Bird part of the A-B pass.

[mall walker]

well if we’re reminiscing about better times with better people



boissal



boissal



getoutside



snowaddict91



my better half



brutah



a stranger







thanks jmedslc for the roof box and chatting today, nice to talk with a human. “one day this war’s gonna end”...

[D-Roc]

You need to get pics of me next lol

[monkeywrenchMoose]

As long as we’re reminiscing about 2010/2011 and being young and dumb, I’ve got two stories:

1) I remember skiing all of spring break at the bird in a perpetual cycle of 6+ inches every night and by the end I said out loud “I wish it would stop snowing so we could have a sunny groomer day”. WTF?

2) Telefreewasatch might be able to confirm this, but I remember some guy roped up on the bottom cliffs of of the old Baldy comp run who was breaking up all the ice with an aluminum baseball bat? Was that an officially sanctioned activity?