Wasatch 21/22 - We're All Here 'Cause We're Not All There!

[D-Roc]

If things keep up at the trend, we may escape a deep PWL, fingers crossed,

Craigs forecast on the gram gave some hope!

BTW I did a thing! 5k on day one. Felt scared to start, made myself fall within the first 200 feet of skiing. Then it was on...

The training and long hours in the gym paid off.

[D-Roc]

OH and also, I found a pair of gloves on the ramp road on my out Saturday night, if you know the owner with a description, id like to return them! or equally keep them haha, pretty nice ones..

[snowaddict91]

If things keep up at the trend, we may escape a deep PWL, fingers crossed,

Craigs forecast on the gram gave some hope!

BTW I did a thing! 5k on day one. Felt scared to start, made myself fall within the first 200 feet of skiing. Then it was on...

The training and long hours in the gym paid off.

Glad to see you back out there!

[CirqueScaler]

BTW I did a thing! 5k on day one. Felt scared to start, made myself fall within the first 200 feet of skiing. Then it was on...

The training and long hours in the gym paid off.

Nice one, man! You did more than us. Wish we had crossed paths

[telefreewasatch]

Pretty encouraging snowpack to start the season.
All 12" of it.
Warm and saturated to the ground at all elevations.
With rain turning to snow in the forecast.
Picture book for future stability.
Long as it keeps snowing...
Even if it don't, and we go cold and dry, gonna take some time to turn frozen mank into facets.
Great base in the meantime.

Yeah D-Roc.

[schindlerpiste]

Yep. I heard Craig Gorden reporting from BCC yesterday. Great start. We will see what happened overnight and will happen today. At least there is no sugar which will cause slide to ground.

[altacoup]

FYI Alta is closed to uphill traffic today. There is access via summer road to Catherine’s pass for terrain not inside Alta’s boundaries

[Benneke10]

Trying to think of a low-ish angle slope to ski on today with decent coverage. Will I get yelled at for skiing Powderhorn? How's coverage on Patsy?

[DigSki]

Trying to think of a low-ish angle slope to ski on today with decent coverage. Will I get yelled at for skiing Powderhorn? How's coverage on Patsy?

Regarding PH - not sure if they have the "backcountry conditions, ride at your own risk" signs in the lot - if they do, you're good, despite whatever the website says. If those signs aren't there and you get spotted you'll get yelled at, but it's pretty easy to do PH laps without getting spotted. Not sure if I'd ski PH with low snow though - I don't think it's that smooth underneath and the wind pulls snow off the edge of diamond lane (that corner above Apex has rocks exposed all season) - but someone has put a track in the last couple storms so maybe it's better than I'm thinking.

[getoutside]

^ welcome back d-roc. fyi snowbird: uphill travel is no longer permitted and will remain closed for winter preparation and maintenance. soft turns at brighton this am. about 6-7”. digski is right though, got yelled at as well last fall skiing ph, but it can be done

[wasatch_carpetbagger]

Was a bit confused when I saw the craig gordon bcc post. Anyone want to explain why the current base wont necessarily become a PWL problem? Don't know that much about avvy science, but assumed that the following were indicia of problems:

1) rapid warming and rain in the days before this storm
2) prolonged period of temperatures near and above freezing for a week+ after this storm.
3) little significant snowfall for a week+ after this storm.

With the obvious caveat that 2 & 3 can change....

[criscam]

Was a bit confused when I saw the craig gordon bcc post. Anyone want to explain why the current base wont necessarily become a PWL problem? Don't know that much about avvy science, but assumed that the following were indicia of problems:

1) rapid warming and rain in the days before this storm
2) prolonged period of temperatures near and above freezing for a week+ after this storm.
3) little significant snowfall for a week+ after this storm.

With the obvious caveat that 2 & 3 can change....

i'm thinking he was talking about no weak layers within the current snowpack we have as well as what we get w this storm (should bond well) as opposed to last year when we had sugar to the ground as our weak layer. moving forward things could change if we stay high and dry over the next week or more obviously.

[tgapp]

Was a bit confused when I saw the craig gordon bcc post. Anyone want to explain why the current base wont necessarily become a PWL problem? Don't know that much about avvy science, but assumed that the following were indicia of problems:

1) rapid warming and rain in the days before this storm
2) prolonged period of temperatures near and above freezing for a week+ after this storm.
3) little significant snowfall for a week+ after this storm.

With the obvious caveat that 2 & 3 can change....

i'm no expert but here is my take

- the current snowpack is right side up, with 1f snow towards the bottom of it and softer snow near the top of it. in upper little we have 50-70cm of snow, which is decent for late october. not only that, but:

- recent rain events have strengthened the snowpack, bringing moisture to it
- diurnal temperature swings (clear, cold nights and warm, sunny days) haven't been too much of a thing - the issue isn't it being warm, it's a temperature/moisture gradient that causes faceting.

NOW, looking forward, the hope is that the current snowpack is so saturated that it takes a while to facet - faceting is moisture moving across a shallow temperature gradient from high vapor pressure (ground) to low vapor pressure (clear, dry night sky). the snow on the ground WILL facet if we move into high pressure, but the hope is that because it is so wet, it will be at least delayed.

if my understanding is wrong please help me out here - articulating this helps me understand this better, and i'm trying my damnedest to be optimistic here.

[Tiktaalik]

Alta uphill open again.

[wasatch_carpetbagger]

NOW, looking forward, the hope is that the current snowpack is so saturated that it takes a while to facet - faceting is moisture moving across a shallow temperature gradient from high vapor pressure (ground) to low vapor pressure (clear, dry night sky). the snow on the ground WILL facet if we move into high pressure, but the hope is that because it is so wet, it will be at least delayed.

Thanks - I was missing the part about saturated snow taking longer to facet....

[Dshack89]

Surfy

[telefreewasatch]

Surfy

Don't look at the towers.
Look at the space between the towers.

[tgapp]

Yep. Today was good.

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[schindlerpiste]

I bet. I'm headed in for a quick lap in the A.M.

[DLD in UT]

The parking lot closed sign at the top of Collins lot ramp didn’t seem to work this AM.
Wind’s done it’s work up there, but for October turns no complaints.
Well except for the car with SC and Georgia Tech plates and summer tires who thought parking 3 deep and boxing me in was a good move…



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[schindlerpiste]

So happy to crack my Oct. ‘21 cherry at Alta this morning

[brutah]

Little birdie told me the guys that own the mining claims in Cardiff fork and the Cardiff snowboard company obtained guiding permits to run a catski and snowmobile tours in Cardiff fork this winter.

Any truth to this Benneke10? Anyone else heard about this?

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[paj]

I just don't get who would want to go cat skiing there. A place that is thoroughly tracked out before, during, and after storms and can be reached in 30 minutes to 1.5 hours of skinning.

Should an operation ever get off the ground there will be a lot of pissed off clients that were tricked into thinking they would get untracked skiing.

[brutah]

I just don't get who would want to go cat skiing there. A place that is thoroughly tracked out before, during, and after snowstorms and can be reached in 30 minutes to 1.5 hours of skinning.

Should an operation ever get off the ground there will be a lot of pissed off clients that were tricked into thinking they would get untracked skiing.

TBH, I don't think a cat could access most of the terrain in Cardiff fork. There's an old mining road up George's but i don't think they get too far in upper cardiff, certainly not to any ridgelines worth skiing from. The bigger issue is snowmobile tours in my opinion.

Hopefully, it's not true.

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[Benneke10]

The USFS has certainly not issued any permits for snowmobile/cat guided operations in Cardiff. The motorized access situation up there is complicated but the deal is that land owners have exclusive access to use motorized vehicles *on designated roads* on USFS lands in Cardiff, and in exchange the land owners allow the public to cross their lands *on designated roads and trails.* At this point neither group sticks to this agreement, but there is no way the USFS would permit any kind of commercial snowmobiling/catting. The current agreement expires in a few months, we'll see what happens next...



Everything that isn't shaded green is privately owned, so if the agreement between the land owners and the FS falls apart we could see some new gates and fences getting built. Hopefully that doesn't happen.