Wasatch 08-09 Conditions

here are a few photos from the bird. they are just quick point and shoot style, so not the quality of 4teef's.


some of the slides broke below the rain crust and some above. if you're out looking at crowns, remember what is left. those that broke above the rain crust will likely repeat if the conditions allow it.


gun towers:
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_86982.jpg

baldy above the traverse. this is where the comp starts in full years.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_86981.jpg

east twin into mineral. crown from right to left--unreliable, 13 turns to fore.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_86979.jpg

titus's tea cup.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_86988.jpg

http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_86984.jpg


snow safety totals up the last week's avalanche count.
http://www.biglines.com/photosv2/200...ines_86985.jpg


it's been a long week. thanks for being patient, both in the backcountry and the resorts.

Temps were in the 40's a the top of the Needles Gondy today at 'Basin. Storm is coming in real wet. Pissing rain at 5000 ft. Graupel white out at 6500. Will the water will help the snowpack or the weight set things in motion?

Did some searching outside Brighton past Dog lake out toward Catherine. WNW facing ~9600ft. Dug a pit to the ground. Column failed on isolation on the infamous facet/crust/facet layer. The new snow, I'm guessing from the last couple storms, is right side up, while below it is downright scary.

http://tetongravity.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=547

Not too experienced with the Utah snowpack, but have been keeping track here, ttips, and UAC, but this looks pretty bad. The facets layer is pretty thick, and the rain (rime?) crust. Is this pretty common throughout the central wasatch?

http://tetongravity.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=548

http://tetongravity.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=549

http://tetongravity.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=550

^^^^^
Finding that prominant rain crust in N NE facing twin lakes pass pits, with an additional melt thaw crust.
Not seeing as promiant of crust in N NW facing Silver fork. Skied bed surface ie ground and rock and > 12" off Davenport today. Both Davenport and Guild line naturaled in sections and took out the rain crust. Some of the tlp slides ran on top of the rain crust some stepped down.
TH who does your mounts?;) Pm me if ya need a few helicoils

Great day in the Provo Peak area. Skied east facing below 9,000 ft. Various snow pits and tests revealed no evidence of the infamous facet/rain crust sandwich. There was a 2" suncrust about 8" under the new snow. Tests showed a Q2 sheer of the suncrust at an average of CT17. Couldn't get it to propagate at all at different elevations on the east facing slopes. Shovel-tilt got the new snow to slide on the suncrust, but not something that alarmed us. New snow appeared to be bonding well with the suncrust. The remainder of the snowpack was well-bonded and right side up.

All in all the skiing was excellent on a beautiful day. The ride down Rock Canyon is also something to savor...pretty fun with a soft layer of powder.

http://www.mountainalbum.com/maraude...ovo/provo1.jpg

http://www.mountainalbum.com/maraude...vo/provo2a.jpg

http://www.mountainalbum.com/maraude...ovo/provo2.jpg

http://www.mountainalbum.com/maraude...ovo/provo3.jpg

Great pics Maruaders, and thanks for the obs from down yonder.

Did the N Face of Provo peak rip out?

^^^^beautiful pics

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

Great pics Maruaders, and thanks for the obs from down yonder.

Did the N Face of Provo peak rip out?

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Ah, I should have mentioned that...we didn't see any natural activity anywhere on Provo Peak from the north through west aspects.

Good skiing today found in upper BCC. Lower angle slopes skied well with fast, mostly right side up snow.

http://www.mountainalbum.com/maraude...ovo/provo3.jpg

beautiful pic!!!

1-4-09

Western Uinta's again. Skied east, south, north aspects from 7,500-10,200. Great skiing on all apects with roughly 6-8" of new from the last storm. No new avy activity noted, didn't see anything alarming. Skied slopes to roughly 34 degrees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdblObdKcbs

Was all over the PC Ridgeline today. From 9990 to Murdock Peak. The snow was fantastic!!! Get out there...Did not dig any pits due to the low angle runs we were skiing. Skied north, northeast slopes as well as southern exposed...Did not notice any avalanche activity whatsoever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

1-4-09

Western Uinta's again.

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Those helicopter shots are sick. The helicam shots just take it to the next level… any chance you also have a picture of the bird? What trailhead/stepping-off point are you using in the Uintas?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ePiech

Those helicopter shots are sick. The helicam shots just take it to the next level… any chance you also have a picture of the bird? What trailhead/stepping-off point are you using in the Uintas?

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Yellowpine. It's a LONG walk but once you get there the goods are, well, good.

Wasatch (The Can.) looking good (Warning: Kiddie stoke)
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/7217/kat2ez7.jpg

Skied Butler Fork finding fun snow for the Lotus 120's on all aspects. Exit was south facing to BCC road. Rollerballing, but otherwise quite fun bobsledding.

No naturals observed in Broads, Mineral, Raymond, Lawnmower, or Argenta.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by powstash

Yellowpine.

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Yellowpine as in Yellowpine creek that flows into beaver creek? If so, I have always wanted to scope that. How LONG is it though?

Toured up Butler Aspens this morning. Snow was a little grabby and got crusty fast when the aspect deviated very far from true north. The skin in almost warranted ski crampons getting up the side of the gulley.

Sfotex showing off his new gore-tex ski jeans. Yeah, I'm jealous.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...5/P1050411.jpg

Turns.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...5/P1050416.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...5/P1050423.jpg

No longer have a Soli pass, so headed up the SF meadows hoping to scope out the keyhole or another shot into Days. Moderate cornices on ridgeline, some flying turds overhead, no real instabilities. Made it to dead tree "chute" before partners time constraints led to dropping back into Sf in the trees diagonal of cliff band. Signs of desposition in trees and old crowns seen on both sides of the ridge. Keyhole looked wind loaded and some cross loading visible in Jaws. Mix of snow conditions from mank below 85k to wind jack on ridgelines and open areas to some nice pow in sheltered trees.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/sf008.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...bum/sf0112.jpg
DP in the morn 5:00 am mouth of bcc if anybodies interested.

We started an hour after SFB and Pondo.....no reason to break trail.;)

Headed up Argenta yelling Marco....and eventually had a "Polo" response from the darkness. We felt safe knowing we were in contact.
http://fritzrips.com/Gallery1/albums...on/tom_arg.jpg

Ran into Pondo digging a pit at the top, just before the steep trees. His pit failed at CT1,000 from the waist.;) Translation:where his pit was, it was bomber. Here Pondo demonstrates the "Waist Smashing Test". "Break, you fucker"
http://fritzrips.com/Gallery1/albums...n/pond_arg.jpg

Despite our micro observation, we still opted to not skin up the last headwall. We'll let someone bolder do that.

Also saw SFB doing weird things to his Bro/Dynafit combo. Strange things happen in the early hours.
http://fritzrips.com/Gallery1/albums...n/dibs_arg.jpg

Next was a 150 second non stop descent of Argenta.....great skiing on 6-9" of new.

My skis match.
http://fritzrips.com/Gallery1/albums.../skirental.jpg

Thanks for the skinner guys.

Today sucked ass:

Heavy snow
http://www.norcalathletics.com/image...s/dsc00619.jpg

It wasn't very deep:
http://www.norcalathletics.com/image...s/dsc00628.jpg

The views sucked:
http://www.norcalathletics.com/image...s/dsc00615.jpg

Keeping the suck going
Sfotex
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/ag020.jpg
More sucky views
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/ag007.jpg
Sucky skis
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/ag010.jpg
At least my photog skills don't suck
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/ag016.jpg
good tour decent pit results - the W sw one
Glad you checked another cool wasatch peak off your list

obs from the yesterdays full moon:

we came back to work to find that the moonlight skiing produced a nice slab out of recent wind drifting on the gad valley/white pine ridge. it appears that some people stayed behind sweeps to get an early start on the nearly full moon skiing. a bootpack leads right into the flank of the slide. i'm not really sure what the outcome was but there are tracks next to the slide and no beacon signal from the debris pile, which was plenty deep for burial.

fwiw, there is an older crown above that was deeper from the x-mas cycle. the slope faces about ENE and loads well with up canyon winds. it seems people are relying on previously avalanched slopes to get some steep skiing in. just remember that our infamous rain crust did not go away in many of the slides, so we may see them repeat throughout the season. last nights event appears to be only new snow wind loading but nothing to scoff at. there should be some better info and more pics available on tomorrow's avy forecast. stay safe out there.


edit for link: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/photos...20Gorsage.web/

http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/photos...web/photo2.jpg

Good skiing up north today. Skied se slopes at elevations from 6500 to 8800 feet and ne slopes from 5700 to 7000 ft. Pits showed 140 cms of pencil hardness snow, with a failure at about 35 cms from the top at 16Q2 on a thin layer of facets. ECT showed no propagation across the slab. No rain crust found.

The skiing was smooth and creamy on a supportable base.

nice jeans sfotex

Skied from roughly 7,500 to 10,000 today in Mineral on east aspects. Dug one pit at roughly 10k on 33 degree east aspect. Dirty, spanky, unimpressive sheer at old rain crust that appears to be degrading. Riming was occurring with earnest on our exit at 11:30am with micro zipper crust forming.


Mindless POV with camera duct tape to skull.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

Skied from roughly 7,500 to 10,000 today in Mineral on east aspects. Dug one pit at roughly 10k on 33 degree east aspect. Dirty, spanky, unimpressive sheer at old rain crust that appears to be degrading. Riming was occurring with earnest on our exit at 11:30am with micro zipper crust forming.


Mindless POV with camera duct tape to skull.

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Holly crap, Trackhead can walk on water.

that video made my day
your hood is fucking annoying though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by otter

Holly crap, Trackhead can walk on water.

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Duh, his new DPS are a super light weight water/snow ski hybrid. Float in pow and on water. The dynafits just add to it all.

Some lame POV for Trackhead:

heard it was raining at white pine today
can anyone confirm?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SkiBumOfVT

heard it was raining at white pine today
can anyone confirm?

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Rime, not rain.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

Mindless POV with camera duct tape to skull.

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... that vid made me laugh my ass off on a very late night tonight; thanks HH :fmicon:

I'm a little scared right now to "race" you on Thursday though ;)

p.s. good to see you realizing "It's all about the down"; 'bout damn time :D

^^^ thanks for you're "observations"

alta is tiny

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

Skied from roughly 7,500 to 10,000 today in Mineral on east aspects. Dug one pit at roughly 10k on 33 degree east aspect. Dirty, spanky, unimpressive sheer at old rain crust that appears to be degrading. Riming was occurring with earnest on our exit at 11:30am with micro zipper crust forming.


Mindless POV with camera duct tape to skull.

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Was in the same neck of the woods. Pondo attempted to rig the helmet cam, but it glitched
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/mf002.jpg
Pondo
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...um/mf011-1.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...bum/mf0202.jpg
Mrs. Pondo
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...hbum/mf013.jpg
Made the chicks dig pits they said it was good to go;)
Rime crust slightly more than micro by our 2:30 exit

Quote:

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Originally Posted by otter

Holly crap, Trackhead can walk on water.

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Is that really surprising?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by otter

Holly crap, Trackhead can walk on water.

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Paypal money to _ _ _ _. When the totals reach $1,000,000 I'll show you this feat again. At that point you will be indoctrinated into my church and the light will shine upon your cranium.

Trip report from Butler Fork (seems pretty popular these days).

Rime falling from the sky, made for interesting skiing on east facing slopes. Dug pit on east/southeast side of Circle All and found it was pretty stabe to the ground. Thin rime crust with some new fluff on top.

All that new powder is about ruined and it's only going to get warmer this week. Maybe we'll be talking about corn skiing in a few days . . .

Full trip report with pic and short vid at my examiner page.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

My skis match.
http://fritzrips.com/Gallery1/albums.../skirental.jpg

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Them skis are sweet but they aint got no hemi in em biatch;)
Here is some stoke from a week ago in Tlp. Posted them in blurred Colodrama thread but that thread sucks. Don't remember observing much other than bluebird face shots.
photo credit JVJ
Mrs.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...m/_MG_1907.jpg

Bummin
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y19...m/_MG_1884.jpg
Th let me know if you need another high pressure wanderer in your crew;)

This was December 9th, 2008 :D