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

[jtran10]

Snapped this of some random on run 2 today.

[jtran10]

Wonder if it has any reason behind why MW isn't affiliated with UAC, or the fact he wanted some additional cash for it, who knows. Also, i think the turns above the gravel pit were fully tresspassing on private, but who knows.

100% trespassing, but looked pretty cool for the gram + he got to say he avoided people and traffic

[Boissal]

You are bothered by the # of people posting observations? Or you think people are recklessly triggering avalanches from ridgetops?

#2, kooks dropping shit off ridgelines without ever thinking about the runout.

[unpopular opinion warning]
Regarding the 1st part of your post, yes, I'm somewhat bothered by the number of completely meaningless obs that are posted on a daily basis. I used to go through all obs on a daily basis since I don't get out every day and I like to know where people are skiing and what they're seeing. Now I look in there, see 15 reports from Willow Frk with mad snowpit details from peeps who want to show off their Avi1 credentials, and have to look for a set of names who I know will post relevant info. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing on people who are new at the game here. It's just that sometimes there's absolutely nothing remarkable or even noteworthy to report from a day out. I don't get the eagerness to post something when that's the case. Weird flex?

I get that there's power in crowdsourcing but without a filter you end up with a shit ton of noise. Small annoyance but, you asked.
[/unpopular opinion warning]

100% trespassing, but looked pretty cool for the gram + he got to say he avoided people and traffic

Nailed it. Always the same spray. #lookatmeImtryingsohard

[getoutside]

saw a pair of kicked cornices today and no tracks on the slope > no comprendo.
face shots and floaty in mill d.

[Boissal]

^^ YUM!!!
Starting to look like there are fewer murderous branches lurking 1/8" below the surface.

[zion zig zag]

#2, kooks dropping shit off ridgelines without ever thinking about the runout.

[unpopular opinion warning]
Regarding the 1st part of your post, yes, I'm somewhat bothered by the number of completely meaningless obs that are posted on a daily basis. I used to go through all obs on a daily basis since I don't get out every day and I like to know where people are skiing and what they're seeing. Now I look in there, see 15 reports from Willow Frk with mad snowpit details from peeps who want to show off their Avi1 credentials, and have to look for a set of names who I know will post relevant info. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing on people who are new at the game here. It's just that sometimes there's absolutely nothing remarkable or even noteworthy to report from a day out. I don't get the eagerness to post something when that's the case. Weird flex?

I get that there's power in crowdsourcing but without a filter you end up with a shit ton of noise. Small annoyance but, you asked.
[/unpopular opinion warning]


Nailed it. Always the same spray. #lookatmeImtryingsohard

I read observations for three reasons, in no particular order: 1. I know the person and am interested in their thoughts, 2. I "know" the person and am interested in the entertainment, 3. I'm interested in a particular location. The rest are just noise to sort through.

[Boissal]

I read observations for three reasons, in no particular order: 1. I know the person and am interested in their thoughts, 2. I "know" the person and am interested in the entertainment, 3. I'm interested in a particular location. The rest are just noise to sort through.

That is my approach now. I particularly enjoy #2!

In case anyone is wondering, I have posted obs on a few occasions: when I found something wholly unexpected (eg clashes with the current avy forecast or my understanding of the conditions), when I found BIG ASS slides in zones that see little traffic and little reporting (not the fucking Monitors), and when I fucked up and thought somebody might benefit from reading how it happened. I don't see the point of posting anything else.

[wasatchgravityresearch]

The avy observations are a gold mine, especially in the early season, but there is a ton of noise when users make obs with very little effort. As a relative newcomer, what are the most useful things to call out in an observation? When I make an observation I try to note my location, my trip plan, the ski conditions, current weather, and then a SnowPilot graph with results from a CT and ECT. What else do you all look for in an obs?

[TheEleven]

#2, kooks dropping shit off ridgelines without ever thinking about the runout.

[unpopular opinion warning]
Regarding the 1st part of your post, yes, I'm somewhat bothered by the number of completely meaningless obs that are posted on a daily basis. I used to go through all obs on a daily basis since I don't get out every day and I like to know where people are skiing and what they're seeing. Now I look in there, see 15 reports from Willow Frk with mad snowpit details from peeps who want to show off their Avi1 credentials, and have to look for a set of names who I know will post relevant info. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing on people who are new at the game here. It's just that sometimes there's absolutely nothing remarkable or even noteworthy to report from a day out. I don't get the eagerness to post something when that's the case. Weird flex?

I get that there's power in crowdsourcing but without a filter you end up with a shit ton of noise. Small annoyance but, you asked.
[/unpopular opinion warning]


Nailed it. Always the same spray. #lookatmeImtryingsohard

This is being taught in the local avy courses - at least it was last year. They are encouraging users to post a quick pic, or anything they see. I'm guessing the approach is the more info the better.

[brutah]

I guess I'm in the minority but I think the amount of observations are a good thing. Having lived in other areas where there's a lot less observations submitted or the forecast center only updates weekly, the UAC and all the observations help take the guess work out of it. It's really not that hard to browse the obs imo and weed out the garbage.

To play devil's advocate, I don't see much harm in kicking cornices or doing avy migration (ski cuts, etc) in the backcountry. I'd say it's more likely that it saves someone life and trying to trust a buried PWL or guess when bridging has occurred gets a lot of people killed. I'd rather not play that game myself. I can only think of one instance where someone had been killed from above while someone ski cut above them, and no charges were bought. Whereas, many avalanche deaths involve a buried PWL. I believe it's on all users to avoid avalanches which applies to the climber and the skier.

We're lucky there are so many observations in this range and the Wasatch snowpack can heal, that allows us to make good guesses on when healing has occurred. I'll probably still see if a big chunk of snow will get a slope to slide before making that gamble myself.

Lastly, trespassing or not, those gravel pit tracks were dope. It's also only trespassing if ya get caught.

[Boissal]

The avy observations are a gold mine, especially in the early season, but there is a ton of noise when users make obs with very little effort. As a relative newcomer, what are the most useful things to call out in an observation? When I make an observation I try to note my location, my trip plan, the ski conditions, current weather, and then a SnowPilot graph with results from a CT and ECT. What else do you all look for in an obs?

Avi observations are a gold mine in the same way Instagram spray is useful: it gives you an idea of what's in and where people are skiing. The bulk of what has been posted these past few years isn't worth anything else.

Regarding what goes in a good obs and what you listed. in my opinion:
. Location is obvious. It's shocking how few people actually mention exactly where they are even when they have the map opened in one hand at all time. Approximate locations make all your snowpit data useless (more on that later).
. Travel plan can be interesting, especially if you adjust on the fly and explain why in your obs but that's asking a lot already.
. Ski condition reports are interesting but again, spatial variability will limit their.
. Weather/snow obs are mostly interesting is they are not in line with the forecast: temperature spikes, random greenhousing, unexpected wind shift or speeds, massive precipitation rates, lower or higher than expected snow amounts, graupel, really fast changes of any kind, etc... If the forecast is for snow with NW winds gusting at 30 mph (which is the bulk of the weather here unless it's high and dry) and that's what you find, no need to elaborate much.
. Snowpit data: personally I ignore anything on that front unless it's posted by a UAC forecaster or someone who's been at it for a long time and actually knows their way around a pit. These guys have interesting thoughts about snowpack structure that can complement the rest of the forecast. For most people though digging a pit is something they learned and feel they have to use. They dig all over the place without any idea what they're looking for so they find whatever they want at the bottom. Between spatial variability and confirmation bias most of the snowpit data is utter garbage for anyone other than the person digging. Not to mention the fact that if you're out consistently and follow the forecast you know pretty much exactly what you're going to find in your hole and you might as well dig 30 quick hand pits instead of 1 giant one.

Honestly, I think pictures, especially of slides, are more valuable than anything else. They help me remember what has slid, what is still hanging there, what is reloading, etc... I can usually see wind patterns, coverage, a lot more than could be described in writing.
This is why I find incident reports more valuable. They're not necessarily more detailed but they always highlight the unexpected thing that caused a problem and the pics help you contextualize the story.

I guess I'm in the minority but I think the amount of observations are a good thing. Having lived in other areas where there's a lot less observations submitted or the forecast center only updates weekly, the UAC and all the observations help take the guess work out of it. It's really not that hard to browse the obs imo and weed out the garbage.

To play devil's advocate, I don't see much harm in kicking cornices or doing avy migration (ski cuts, etc) in the backcountry. I'd say it's more likely that it saves someone life and trying to trust a buried PWL or guess when bridging has occurred gets a lot of people killed. I'd rather not play that game myself. I can only think of one instance where someone had been killed from above while someone ski cut above them, and no charges were bought. Whereas, many avalanche deaths involve a buried PWL. I believe it's on all users to avoid avalanches which applies to the climber and the skier.

We're lucky there are so many observations in this range and the Wasatch snowpack can heal, that allows us to make good guesses on when healing has occurred. I'll probably still see if a big chunk of snow will get a slope to slide before making that gamble myself.

Lastly, trespassing or not, those gravel pit tracks were dope. It's also only trespassing if ya get caught.

It's not a bad thing IMO but it's nowhere near as useful as it seems. It certainly beats having to rely on interstate webcams to figure out if there's any coverage in the area you're going to, or calling the local rancher to ask how much snow is on the access road.
I feel like 15 years ago the crowdsourced obs were vital to the UAC. Now they're a big enough outfit that their forecast would be 95% as good without anyone volunteering info from the filed.

Kicking cornices to ski a run is fine, pretty much mandatory if you ask me. Running to the top of Days so you can drop cornices into lines you won't touch just to watch them slide is dumb. Especially when it happens every other day and the line never flushes properly.

[CirqueScaler]

I've only posted obs when I've come across an avalanche, even if it's an expected avalanche based on the forecast. I think it's helpful to publicize recent avalanches as the clearest sign of danger. I do think confirming the avalanche forecast is useful. Agree that confirming weather is useless. I check the UAC page to see it hasn't been reported before posting.

I read all obs daily and find them pretty useful. For sure there are certain people who post better information than others. Personally, I find ECT results really informative when there's a PWL because it gives me a sense of how close we are to healing (or not). I'm not going to dig pits on my own, and I'm not going to ski a PWL before it's green, so it's really just to give me a mental sense of where we're at in the season.

[Boissal]

I've only posted obs when I've come across an avalanche, even if it's an expected avalanche based on the forecast. I think it's helpful to publicize recent avalanches as the clearest sign of danger. I do think confirming the avalanche forecast is useful. Agree that confirming weather is useless. I check the UAC page to see it hasn't been reported before posting.

I read all obs daily and find them pretty useful. For sure there are certain people who post better information than others. Personally, I find ECT results really informative when there's a PWL because it gives me a sense of how close we are to healing (or not). I'm not going to dig pits on my own, and I'm not going to ski a PWL before it's green, so it's really just to give me a mental sense of where we're at in the season.

Yeah all slides should get captured, ideally once from not too far away. Not sure we need obs from the glide cracks on Bonkers taken from the Cardiff ridgeline or fuzzy shots of random pockets taken with an iPhone through binoculars though.
I'd trust pit data if it were a bit more standardized. You ever see two people bang on a shovel blade? Doesn't seem all that repeatable to me...

[altacoup]

Observation from Alta today. Excellent skiing and no lines.


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[ski_the_fraulein]

Snapped this of some random on run 2 today.

Looks like me! ;-).

Was a good day!


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[jmedslc]

Observation from Alta today. Excellent skiing and no lines.


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Observation from solitude today: new terrain open, decent skiing and no lines.

[jtran10]

Observation from solitude today: new terrain open, decent skiing and no lines.

oooh a 3rd trail is open now!?

[Trefin]

Observation from Alta today. Excellent skiing and no lines.


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Had the same observation. Was stupid good. My only complaint is my legs only lasted until 2pm due to no lines. Can’t wait for round 2 tomorrow.


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[D-Roc]

The LCC Country Club was all time today, got to kook around with Dshack, a most excellent time had

[jmedslc]

oooh a 3rd trail is open now!?

lol, yup. they finally got Eagle open today so it was nice to at least get some longer, more challenging runs in from the ridge. they haven't run a groomer on anything up there yet, but i didn't care as i bashed the bumps for a couple hours.

patrol was tracking up the powderhorn terrain today and it may not be long for that one as well. coverage looks decent up there now.

[Dantheman]

Observation from Alta today. Excellent skiing and no lines.

Yer killing me. Had plans to take the afternoon off that got derailed.

[Dshack89]

The LCC Country Club was all time today, got to kook around with Dshack, a most excellent time had

Agreed!! Not sure where everybody was but today was the day out there! So good.

[CirqueScaler]

It is so good right now. Git sum tomorrow. 6-8" of blower on top of all of the soft from this week in upper LCC.

[baron]

Agreed!! Not sure where everybody was but today was the day out there! So good.

Ya mountain completely filled in with fresh/untracked lines found after noon still . LMAO >was only skier on the 915 bus goin up

[skifishbum]

probably a good reason ya cant find viddies of TK or EL intentionally creating large sides and repeaters for school girl giggles and spew tube views

they learned it from.......