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Suttle diference, but it's NE aspect. (I know cause I build a big kicker there when there's a lot of snow and wind)Quote:
Originally Posted by freejustin
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=lovela...38624&t=p&z=15
How did you learn to hike straight under a hangfire avy with all your buds? Because thats so rad!!!
strangely, the line i skied was not identical at all, or really even similar in any way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Jongalot
though it was similar aspect and elevation, my line was much more sheltered from wind loading (i saw effectively no signs of wind loading at all), had a far more uniform snowpack (ie. rather solid from top to bottom, other than 4-5" of buff on the top), and there was no slab or significant layering.
its funny how things like TOPOGRAPHY actually factor into the equation.
thanks for playing though.
Huh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RationalizationQuote:
Originally Posted by marshalolson
Rough translation: 'it didn't slide so it was safer'Quote:
Originally Posted by marshalolson
But hey I'm the one who builds kickers over there all winter.
"the means of transition from a traditional society into a rationalized one" - wikiQuote:
Originally Posted by Sir Jongalot
DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!
Loveland Pass 11/25
Skied south/southeast aspect early afternoon which had a pretty stout sun crust that hadn't softened, other than the few shots sheltered from the sun which were soft. One shot behind a cliff with a easterly aspect, 40 deg, and shady was 18" powder on top of well developed depth hoar of 6-8".
North/NE aspects mid afternoon. Some soft snow where not hammered by the wind or other skiers.
Going to be interesting when we get substantial snow.
The sun crusts are slippery - a lot will depend there on if the new snow comes in wet or dry.
Anything shady has some significant depth hoar developed at the bottom so we'll likely have the typical land mine effect, especially when we get wind slab development.
Dug a pit at about 12200 ft on an east aspect. Snowpack was bomber and surpising much deeper than we expected. We didn't make it to the ridge line though due to inclement weather. It was puking snow for a while around 1:30 pm.
Our intended line:
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...8/IMG_3884.jpg
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...8/IMG_3876.jpg
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...8/IMG_3874.jpg
From A-Basin yesterday occasional glimpses of a slide looker's right of The Professor, SE aspect above tree line that ran to the ground. Two tracks down the middle of Professor that did not appear to be the trigger, too difficult with the swirling clouds to see if there was a trigger, or if it was part of avy control the days prior.
Dry Gulch, sunlight knob mentioned in Hacksaw's post:
http://www.forrestthorniley.com/imag...h/drygulch.jpg
triggered from the second track from the right with a rather hard turn (12/6):
http://www.forrestthorniley.com/imag...gulch/dg19.jpg
http://www.forrestthorniley.com/imag...gulch/dg06.jpg
http://www.forrestthorniley.com/imag...gulch/dg08.jpg
deposition zone about 1.5 meters at its deepest:
http://www.forrestthorniley.com/imag...gulch/dg07.jpg
pretty wind affected since friday
Any idea of the angle of that, Hikefor? barely looks 25*!!!!
unfortunately i didnt get the slope angle, but the pics are deceiving, probably closer to 38 id guess
Whummppffff,wmmppffff, wmmmpffff
is what I got east facing trees - about the same altitude as the above.
Variability is the key word. Some places seem stable, but others where old snow turned to hoar are bad.
similar findings to both sean and HFT at Dry Gulch Saturday. Dug a pit on S/SE aspect to find about 3 feet total depth. Odd layer about halfway down the pack, but bonding between the two layers was good.
Very wind affected up high and whoomping around trees and or willows where facet growth is more likely.
^ i thought that odd layer was 1 of the 2 rain events we've had?
similar findings as rontele, but that should be expected, since we were in the same party that day :p
From: http://avalanche.state.co.us/pub_bc_avo.php?zone_id=1
Saturday Winds: 28-38 G80s
Saturday Night Winds: 30-40 G90
Gusts into the 80s and 90s??
Things are going to be interesting.
obviously a scary pack right now. I think as usual it depends on aspect and location. Some areas have looked pretty stable then the inbounds craziness today. Lots to think about.
Berthoud Pass 12/14
Hit multiple Floral area trees and HHA/ NW facing trees. Skiing was excellent, although some wood and a couple rocks are still out there menacing.
Definite instability where steep and open and windloading. The bottom layer is totally shit in most places meaning there is the potential for to the ground slides, esp where there has been little or no other skier traffic in the earlier storms. The top layer was pretty fluffy below treeline, but above or in cross loading gullies it was very cracky with the cold temps.
I saw lots of cracking and minor sliding/sluffing in the most aggressive run we took, which was trees just skiers left of Hanging Meadow.
Take care, its no time to be going big.
Berthoud today and nothing has changed though the wind slab has grown a bit. We are a big storm from a vicious avy cycle. The bottom 2/3ds of our snowpack is absolute junk.Quote:
Originally Posted by smitchell333
Didn't know Mike well, but we'd definitely chat if we ran into each other on the street.
Stay Safe out there people.
From the CB News:
A search and rescue operation is ongoing to locate Crested Butte resident Michael Bowen, who was last seen on Wednesday, December 17. Bowen is believed to have been the victim of an avalanche while skiing near the Climax Chutes on Mt. Emmons.
Search and rescue officials say if the man is not found today, Friday, his body may not be recovered until the spring.
Crested Butte Search and Rescue public information officer Nicholas Kempin says Bowen went skiing in the Climax / Happy Chutes area just north of Mt. Emmons on Wednesday, December 17.
Search and rescue received the call on Thursday morning at 7:45 when Bowen’s friends reported him missing.
Kempin says at least 12 people were involved in a search operation on Thursday and they found some clues as to Bowen’s whereabouts.
“We did as best we could, given the visibility yesterday. It was snowing pretty hard,” Kempin says.
In addition to the poor visibility, the terrain was also unsafe due to high avalanche danger. “We checked out what we could safely. There was obviously a lot of slide activity,” Kempin says. “We could really only check things safely from above and below.”
Kempin says a search team was sent up on the ridge above Climax Chutes to look for clues, and by dusk they had located what is believed to be Bowen’s tracks. “We had a rough idea where we thought he came down,” Kempin says.
Kempin says the search and rescue team also identified a recent avalanche slide that Bowen may have been caught in, but there was not a way to confirm with the inclement weather and encroaching darkness.
On Friday he said searchers were back investigating the slide path, by probing and systematically searching the debris.
According to interviews with Bowen’s friends, Kempin says he was not wearing an avalanche beacon, but may have been wearing a new Helly Hansen jacket that contains a Recco rescue capsule. The Recco system is not as effective as wearing a beacon, but can still assist rescuers in locating an avalanche victim.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort Ski Patrol has a Recco Receiver, which transmits a signal that “reflects” off of the capsules for avalanche rescue operations.
Kempin says Ski Patrol assisted in the search on Friday, as well as specially trained avalanche rescue dogs.
As of Friday afternoon Kempin said there was still no sign of the victim.
Kempin says the man is presumed deceased at this point and searchers are treating the operation as a recovery. However, Kempin says there is always hope. “In search and rescue we call it ‘the rest of the world’. We think someone is in a certain spot, but there’s always a chance that person is somewhere else.”
But in this case Kempin says it’s unlikely Bowen is missing in another location, particularly because his bike was discovered at Peanut Lake.
With more bad weather predicted Friday night and Saturday, Kempin says Friday’s operation could be the last chance for recovery this winter. “I imagine with the clear day we have and this weather window, if he’s not found today that could be it…we’re really hoping we find him today,” Kempin says.
The Crested Butte Avalanche Center was reporting high and considerable danger in the backcountry on Friday. Heavy snowfall and strong winds mid-week increased the avalanche danger after a string of clear, cold days.
According to a website update from forecaster Steve Banks, “We are still concerned with avalanches being triggered near the ground on weak, faceted snow. This snowpack structure has been responsible for many avalanches during the preceding week, and will remain a problem for most of the winter.”
“Now is not the time for powder fever and to be pushing it in the backcountry. Any slope steeper than 30 degrees should be treated as unstable right now, and avoided. Be also aware of the potential for natural avalanches to release on slopes near you.”
No further information on the search and rescue was available at press time. The Crested Butte News will be following up on the situation in the December 25 issue.
From the CB Avalanche center today 12/21:
The body of Mike Bowen was found yesterday at the bottom of the Happy Chutes in a large pile of debris just up from the valley floor. After finding a hat and pole above his exact location was pinpointed by a dog. He was found 4 feet under the debris without his snowboard or backpack. We will post a more detailed accident investigation soon.
At least they found his body so his friends and family don't have to know he's out there all winter. Sad. RIP
Lots of cracking and whoomfing (sp?) today on N and W facing slopes below treeline near Leadville. It was pretty nerve-racking a couple times. There's about 3" of sugar right on the ground with 2-3 feet of soft snow on top. The top does not seem to be consolidating well either - perhaps it's too cold, we were on N slopes as well. we didn't see anything really propagate, but it was falling apart easily. Be careful out there and stay away from high consequence slopes. The pack is also pretty thin in places, especially up here where we haven't been hit by the last few storms as bad (unfortunately), so watch out for rocks and stumps.
jt,
where were you on that last report?
cal gulch
thanks
keep posting , im reading and it helps since im in your backyard. i will do the same. been keeping it inbounds lately with the snowpack and all. heck im even taking safety gear inbounds after the vail slides
I hate to get off the subject,but TeleMike,are you from Bama?I live in WP/Fraser ,and have a nice crew of Bama folks up here.Let's try to get out some time.
Montanaskier is from Bama....Roll Tide brother
Skied Gold Hill today, just north of Fremont Pass. I dug a pit on a W-NW aspect in an opening just below treeline, maybe 20-25 degree slope angle. Snowpack was about 4 feet deep and appears to be consolidating nicely in the recent warm weather. The snow had a nice gradient from soft to firm from the surface to base with no obvious weak layers. However, the 2-3 inch sugar layer is still present right at the ground surface. Doing a compression test, the whole column shifted only from being isolated from the rest of the pit. It shifted on the sugar layer. There was no other movement, except for about 10 inches from the top of the column on the 5th tap from the elbow. This looked to mostly be new snow that had not yet completely bonded to the rest of the snowpack.
The sugar layer sketches me out. After the compression test I started scooping sugar snow out from under the wall of the pit trying to see if I could get it all to collapse, and the whole snow pack stayed well supported after I pretty much dug a cave out of the sugar snow. It seems this sugar and the snow above it is staying reasonably supported but it is not really stable and has a significant potential to slide eventually albeit randomly. Pretty scary and hard to predict. Hopefully it will eventually consolidate, but it looks like it will take awhile. I imagine N and E faces the sugar layer is even more prevalent and will take even longer to work itself out.
^^^^ thanks for the update.
where you dug, sounds like the pack is bridging fairly well - but as you essentially note, if it's gonna go, it's gonna be the whole thing. Find that trigger point around a rock or bush where the pack isn't bridged above the basal facets and....
Went up Buckeye Gulch yesterday, and found fantastic snow on E aspect!! 8-10 inches of blower on top of a soft base = really good skiing!!!! No signs of instability were observed, nor did I see any signs of natural slides on the steeper lines off Buckeye Peak.
thanks for the obs. is there a TH w/parking right off 91?Quote:
Originally Posted by powder_prophet
i was up there about 5 days before this and this same day,however ona predominantly NE facing slope near and above TL of 22-25* near the bottom and 26-28* near the top.Quote:
Originally Posted by jon turner
dug a pit on the earlier date, to find pretty much exactly what you found. To elaborate, the snow was well consolidated, and i had lots of trouble finding weak layers in the upper section of the pack. I was expecting to find a surface hoar layer, from what i observed about another 5 days before this trip, but it was either destroyed by high winds of really hard to find. Additionally, my friend and I felt that there was little energy in this consolidation as our compression and shears gave Q2s as well as from obs on how if failed and how it felt when poking\prodding\digging\isolating\etc. We also performed an ECT and PST without any resulting prorogation of the failure. It was the most amorphous Ive ever seen snow here and it was strange. Skied off the ridge of Gold hill, back down to the gulch, measured around 26-28*, and as expected, nothing moved. Also worth mentioning is that when our party of 3 gained the ridge, we all grouped together in an area appx ~10sqft and caused a whoompf as we got within this sized area.
On the same day we were there, I didnt dig a pit due to time and wind, but now wish i did. Definitely going to hit it up next time.
We traveled a bit higher than everyone else, again to the ridge, knowing the terrain and slope angles well.
People were scared of the cornice im guessing, which in places was small to non-existent, and large enough to bury a person in others.
A very firm windslab had developed over the last time we were there.
Id only be guessing at how thick it was, as it was impenetrable with my ski pole. Upon descending in an area free any significant cornices (like 4" overhang), i skied gently to the edge bouncing a tad on my downhill ski. When I got to the edge, the new snow (1-3") ontop of the windslab fractured locally around my ski, and produced no other movement. The bond here between this new snow and this slab is very poor. Skiing on down this slope, nothing else moved. Be aware and wary of this wind slab near and above treeline in this area should you venture on to steeper terrain closer to Fletcher\Clinton\Atlantic\Pacific\Quandry\etc in this area.
yesQuote:
Originally Posted by spthomson
just head down 4 maybe 5mi and its on your left
theres also another smaller one at clinton gulch? just a bit past this main\larger parking lot at mayflower gulch.
i think he was asking about a TH to get into Buckeye. But yes, for Gold Hill, there are the two you mention.Quote:
Originally Posted by pechelman
yeah, there is a small, inconspicuous TH/parking just east of the two archways. Its the 10th Mtn TH to get to the Sangre hut.Quote:
Originally Posted by spthomson
I made it up to Gold Hill after work to get some afternoon pow. Found much the same conditions reported earlier in the week: a soft yet consolidated upper layer with facets at the ground. Actually much more stable then expected. I did some hard ski cuts on top of tailings piles that were 38-40 degrees and could not get anything to even sluff, let alone slab off!
Back to Buckeye in the morning. That E aspect was too good not to go back...
not sure how i misunderstood that
thanks for the correction and info!
Went up Buckeye this morning. We found 20-24 inches of 2-3% blower. Underneath was a well-consolidated mid-pack for around 18 inches, then 5-6 inches of basal facets. Compression tests were positive; very low-energy shears were happening on the new/old-snow interface, around CT20. While skiing, we saw no signs of instability, no cracking or collapsing, and no natural activity. Skied a 30-32 degree pitch, and did not even experience sluffing. Only massive face-fulls of airy pow!!!!!
It was good in Cal Gulch this afternoon as well. Similar conditions, just a little less snow, which would be expected.Quote:
Originally Posted by powder_prophet
sounds like Vail Pass got about 3 or 4 feet from the Tuesday/Wed system. Check out NPGs blog.
^^^
Similar experience to NPG yesterday. Vail Pass/Uneva side.
3+ feet of new snow up there. Inverted layering in the new snow compounded by surface hoar on crusty layer underlayed with depth hoar. I slogged laboriously up towards Uneva on treed W/SW/S slopes for 3 hours - ski tips constantly catching under the heavier layer in the middle of the 3' and/or breaking into the layers underneath the new.
Had to bail near treeline as I started getting whoomphing as the terrain started to get steeper than 20-25 deg, not cool. I'm quite certain that a 35-40 deg slope would have slid, probably first in the 3' and then quite possibly triggering to the ground. Bailed out and back down.
Skiing down was terrible as ski tips kept getting dragged under the heavier stuff. Went to the uptrack and rode straight back down.
So that was you on the Uneva side? We saw someone near the base of the peak, but didn't see any ski tracks anywhere at all on that side of the pass and wondered what had happened. Thanks for the insight.Quote:
Originally Posted by smitchell333
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...11_AsMxm-M.jpg
As for our experiences, all 3+ feet of new snow was super reactive yesterday. On a 30-35 degree NE slope, the new snow didn't pass a Rutschblock 2 while the 4+ feet of hard slab underneath passed an RB7. As predicted, the new snow collapsed twice on the initial rollover (>40 degrees) in the area between Shrine Mountain and Black Lake no. 2 just below 11,000 feet on a NE slope. We also saw two remote avalanches set off by our presence. One (20-25 degrees, NE slope, 10800') was about 50 feet below us and another (~40 degrees, NE slope, 11000') was also 50 feet away. The 2nd was around 50-100' wide and ran 150-200'. The two we set up ran 100-150' and were about 50-100' wide.
Below is the first one that was set off after a member in our party ski cut across:
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...10_PFdjH-M.jpg
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...03_CV8rs-M.jpg
Some pic pictures:
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...86_Ncgv2-M.jpg
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...42_E2Yie-M.jpg
Shovel length here = new snow:
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...aPb-M.jpg[
Adam performing the Rutschblock test:
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...92_hTPZp-M.jpg
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...31_hwnuY-M.jpg
This shows how deep the snow was:
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...25_oXhUw-M.jpg
http://thomas-armento.smugmug.com/ph...33_3iLej-L.jpg
Recap of the day here:
http://www.52weeksindenver.com/2009/...vail-pass.html
I was approaching via the treed drainage S and E of this pic. The guys in this pic were a couple of snowshoers that I shared trailbreaking with for the 1st 3/4 mile or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by NPG