Frost my fanny its bottomless pow!

[snoslut]

Days: November 23, 24, 25 of 2006
Destination: East Peak - Crystal Mountain, WA

Eli


Day 1
Restricted access to my favorite areas has forced me to formulate a new strategy. Nomad from splitboard.com had expressed a degree of interest in touring over gobble gobble day weekend. So did Squirell99 from TGR. With all eyes on the telemetry it was soon settled. So much new snow with so much more coming that the only way you could go wrong is if you didn't go.

The drive to Crystal went just like any other drive that you've done so many times. With the heavy snow I had to put the brights on for the jump into hyperspace. Soon upon arriving at the lot Squirrell99 realized he had left his transceiver, shovel and probe back at home. Bummer. He had to settle for bottomless in the resort. Boo whoo! Without hesitation Nomad and I continued on our journey until being stopped by a patroller who made us sign in. No problem but when asked where we would be touring we were greeted with "no you can't go there or there or there". Whatever. This is taking too much time already. So to avoid any further hassle and many stink eyes we headed towards East Peak.

Alpenglow...


How can one ever get tired of yet another Powder Bowl shot...


Soon after skinning the bombs started going off. After exiting the cat track it got deep. You know its deep when you sink 2-3ft while trying to break trail. I looked over at Nomad and just smiled. It's gonna be a long day I exclaimed.
Nomad shot this pic of me wallowing in delightful misery...


Is it gonna burn off??


Due to the possible avi danger and torments of mother nature a decision was made to stay in the trees and make alot of switchbacks. By 11ish at 5600ft a pit was dug to the ground on a southwest facing aspect in the high 20's low 30's degree range. Findings: around 10'' of bomber base with a rain crust layer about 1-2'' thick with 20-30'' of new snow on top. It was clear to see that the last 6-8'' of snow fell at really cold temps. Below that finger pokes were met with increasing resistance the further down I probed. However we did notice a layer just above the rain crust, about 1-2'' thick, where the crystals were faceted and could be hollowed out but with effort. The cooling right after the rains. Columns were seperated and shear and compression tests applied. The top 6-8'' sluffed or should I say blown off with ease. The remaining new snow layers seemed well bonded with each other down to the rain crust. We were unable to get a clean shear on the rain crust layer after some pounding and prying but with more snow loading and cold temps, something to look out for.

Crown on northeast aspect...


Nomad and I sought shelter in the trees about a stones throw from the ridge line. Visibility on open slopes looked like a recipe for vertigo so stay in the trees we did. I wasn't too suprised to find that nobody had followed us. Well the next few moments can't be described by any words...

Gobble gobble...


Day 2
Dropped some lines out the night before and on my first bite was Jimjar. Would there be anyone else?? Common I know you turkey eaters are dying to burn off those newly acquired pounds. Preston, Alex and Greydon Clark from TGR both showed a sign of interest. The 3 of us waited as long as we could and decided that 3 would have to work. Within minutes of skinning my cell rang and the echos of people bailing filled my ears. Ba humbug! Once we reached the junction I laughed. Judging by the fact that our skin track was erased and our tracks faintly visible, one could only assume that anywhere from 1-2ft had fallen and even more with the wind.

Trail breaking on the 2nd day...


Burning off...


Retracing our route from the previous day was not an option. The slope looked heavily wind loaded. An alternate line was taken through the trees until a small open slope was reached. This aspect and elevation would ultimately prove to be the crux of this trip.

She blinded me with science...snow science...


Another pit was dug to the ground on a similiar aspect, elevation and slope angle as the day before. The results weren't as good due to all the new snow fall. While putting in the switchbacks all of us observed some of cracks and dislodging of the first foot or so. However, like the day before there were no sounds of settling and isolated columns yeilded similiar shear and compression results. So like the day prior a decision was made to stay clear of open slopes and steep rolls overs. This was the crux. A partially open slope with the last 40ft being the most questionable. Jimjar and Nomad took shelter while communicating by radio. Once I reached a safety point and a place to spot they followed quickly. The rest of the skin was easy from here in terms of avi danger.

My damage...


I thought the day would never come. A day when I muttered the words "boy am I happy to see somebody behind us". Two splitters from the Vancouver, Wa area who had caught up with us about 200 or so feet shy of the ridge line. The guy was rockin a 195 swallowtail so all the kickturns his lady friend was doing just sucked for him.

From the just below the summit we proceeded to take the plunge. Once again words cannot describe the next few moments...

Nomad going down...


And contemplating the true meaning of life...


Then coming up for some air...


Jimjar decided to hang his jacket on this line and went to the Elk to marinate while Nomad and I went for seconds.

Jimjar...can I get a witness...


Jimjar...


Yours truely of course... (taken by Nomad)


And another one of me by Nomad...


And another...


And another...


Day 3

Bluebird! Nothing like a bluebird day the night after listening to a good band in the presence of old friends with some new ones. Ever hear that saying actions louder than words??

Rainier n Crystal...


Windy Rainier...


Burning off...


Peace...


Eli again...


And again...


On a serious note there was an avi off of East Peak on a south easterly facing slope. It was really cold this morning and everything not protected got baked by the sun. Our skin track was visible with anywhere from another 6 or so inches filling in. The elevation was around 5700ft. Crown was around a foot deep and 100-150ft wide. The runout was around 100-200ft, terrain allowing. The debris pile up was 1-3ft. After talking to people and gathering different accounts of what happened, appeared a skier triggered it and was buried with only one leg showing. There was a party below resting and lunching that also got caught. Apparently they only lost their gear like their skis. The hike out must have sucked. At least they walked away!

Now I leave you with a pick of a stick, aka branch of death, that almost ruined my chances of ever having kids.

[HikeforTurns]

FKNA that TR didnt suck at all. Some sick shots in there. NICE

[keksie]

i hate you guys so much

sincerely,
the whole europe

[hutash]

Looks like some intense days, way to kill it, and stay safe.

[jibco]

Sweet shots. Glad everyone was OK.

[Yoda]

came I did

[FigureEleven]

Best Crystal TR of the year! I love that place.

[PNWbrit]

Thanks for making me feel even worse about only getting one day in over the weekend.

Stella TR

[ill-advised strategy]

thanks for such a killer TR!

[Mofro261]

QUALITY.

Great write up and beautiful pics Snoslut.

[skinny_kid]

Awesome thread man. Thanks for posting. This jong needs to get to some steep and deep asap

[Deep Days]

The lawd is good-ah!

[Ubersheist]

i hate you guys so much

sincerely,
the whole europe

...and the Tahoe crowd.

Nice TR, though. FKNA! Hopefully, I'll make a quick dash up that way around Christmas time...

[Schmear]

Thanks for making me feel even worse about only getting one day in over the weekend.

Stella TR

At least you got one. Tried to get up to Summit West for a few hours today and even that didn't happen. Waaaaa! But anyway...

Nice pictures. This should make it clear once and for all that Warshington doesn't have any good ski terrain.

[Squirrel99]

kick ass! the past week did not suck at all - in any way or form.

[iskibc]

Git sum. Nice to see some bluebird PNW pow photos.

[BushwackerinPA]

ummm FKNA!!!

[0BernhardFranz]

you´re just Christians still in the US to hike up here and then risk skiing down ... sacrifice !

[Rontele]

This picture underscores how earned those turns were. Wow! What a day and thanks for sharing the stoke...

[leroy jenkins]

Damn thats deep. I didn't even realize you guys were slowboarders till the tenth picure or so.

[gregm]

[carl jay]

mama. *goes to bathroom to clean up*

[Deep Dicks]

This TR makes me want to dance!

[prestonf]

Damn dude, that's a lot of trailbreaking. I'm tired just thinking about it. Thanks for the skin track .

[Crinkle]

trenches i tell you!!! TRENCHES