Nah, I was wrong. I used to think it was about good times with your friends skiing pow. But apparently its not. Backcountry skiing is a talent contest. At least in the Wasatch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark H;
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Nah, I was wrong. I used to think it was about good times with your friends skiing pow. But apparently its not. Backcountry skiing is a talent contest. At least in the Wasatch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark H;
Got out yesterday with my super talented wife NE shots off tlp skied well. No instabilities noted on those aspects. S exit of davenport a little thin and snow surface starting to heat up and pinwheel upon 4 ish exit.
strong work gettin the injured partner out of mill b tough exit for that. Had to do something similiar but no where as bad as busted femur, a few seasons. ago.
You and your wife are both supertalented, same with jtrue when I went with him!....Trackhead otoh - talented is not an accurate description, the guy is just a machine. Will post some observations when I get back later today.Quote:
Originally Posted by skifishbum
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMessenger
Well, It would be hard to say Trackhead is a good resort skier because i don't think he's ever skied at one.
Good Lord. Nobody said it's a contest.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMessenger
And there is quite a difference between touring in the pen and doing big tours in true 'backcountry'. Route finding, skinning/climbing technique, avalanche assessment, communication, and other nuances become more important. That is where backcountry skills (talent) really show up. Just because you appreciate someone's superior talent doesn't mean you're competing with them. It just inspires you to be better.
I've skied at Snowbasin with him.Quote:
Originally Posted by sfotex
Did you call Monte?Quote:
Originally Posted by criscam
Jay is the man and I will really miss shredding with him this year! I don't care what anyone says... he is most definitely a talented skier. From the way a skinner is cut to the unique line chosen down the mountain, Jay's talent is displayed through his creative, smooth style and his charging attitude. You cannot say you're a "good skier" or not and simply handle anything. We can all put ourselves in situations to be scared shitless and sketchy summer trails can always take you down.
Jay is a good friend to many of us on here. Heal up fast man! I know you'll recover at super-human speed and come back killing it harder than ever!
Is this thread about sucking eachother's dicks and semantics, or is it about skiing, posting cool pics, and some obs?
Some people have different 'talents'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trackhead
Yeah, and I bet he didn't even shred the groomers at the optimal carving angle ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
LOL!!! That pretty much ends the discussion right there....Quote:
Originally Posted by Trackhead
And some people just plain suck.Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
and now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/tom-3.jpg
rode mostly north-east facing aspects in BCC today, Snow seems to have really set up nicely. Winds were kicking up at higher elevations and small wind slabs and little cornices were starting to develop on north facing slopes.
May not make much difference with the new snow coming, but we observed a small natural along the north ridge of Little Water Peak. It looked like the cornice collapsed and pulled out a small hard slab. The wind was blowing hard from the south and it was moving a lot of snow. Snow in the main bowl went from creamy to stiff in an hour.
Skied north and south facing ~ 10k ft. Amazingly enough, no instabilities noted, but there is a pretty stout wind crust found about 1-2 feet down, depending on aspect. Ridges were significantly wind-scoured with less accumulation and wind loading was present on both north-facing and south-facing slopes.
Can you find climbhigh (Aaron)?
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._8125541_n.jpg
Almost became a statistic today, got lucky, more later.
Humble pie.
sorry to hear that derek. glad things worked out ok.
obs:
there seemed to be stubborn windslabs up high w/o much energy and sensitive slopes w/ the sun crust underneath.
We found some that were not so stubborn, and had lots of energy...working on some photos.Quote:
Originally Posted by AltaPowderDaze
I hear if they are really good, they charge for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
:D
I don't have access to that much coin, so I wouldn't know, personally.
Preface: It's always hard to write about mistakes you make in your travels, but I think doing so is always better for education and insight, so with that said. I choked on a big piece of humble pie today after 20 years of a fairly safe track record of ski touring.
Skinnd up Pole Line, with the idea of looking at south aspects.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0003.jpg
We decided to take a look at Little Sup or Sup, realizing the wind had been blowing and seeing that on both aspects. We figured we'd take a poke and a look around. As we traversed ahead, some spots had wind loading off the ridges, other places just had nice soft snow, unaffected by wind transport.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0005.jpg
We got to the base of Little Sup and crossed a couple small, isolated wind slabs. We found ourselves further out from the ridge than we liked, and then discussed cutting back to the ridge and booting up the rocks. We thought we were on consolidated snow, or a bed surface, or really shallow snow with minimal hazard. Admittedly, I did not probe into the snowpack where we were. We spread out as best we could and started to go back to the rocky ridge.
As the first in our party cut back, the slope broke around him and he nonchalantly said "avalanche". The second in our group was on a subridge and was out of harms way. I was just about to the subridge, but not quite. I saw the slide coming and hustled on my skins, but no dice............
Here's a photo looking up at the crown. It propagated from the first in our group up about 15ft, culminating in a crown with a max depth of about 3ft, but mostly in the 1-3ft range. It also seemed to propagate left and right, pulling more down from the initial fracture. The right half of the crown line in the photo below.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0006.jpg
I got hit and at first thought It was small and might be able to self arrest on the bed surface, but I looked up and it seemed to be just getting bigger. I got knocked face first, threw my poles away and tried to twist out of my skis because they were clearly pulling me down. I failed to get my avalung in my mouth because I was clawing at the bed surface trying to not get swept over the cliffs and rocks below. Eventually the slide went over and around me and I was able to stop somehow, not sure how. My poles were gone, skis were off, legs and waist buried, face and head down hill.
I could see one of our party was fine, but I yelled out for the other and heard nothing. I extricated myself and yelled again, then heard the other in our party. He was perhaps 200+ feet below, unburied, skis on, self arrested on the bed surface before the cliffs, he was able to get his avalung in his mouth right away.
Aftermath, the first in our party skinning back up the bed surface.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0008.jpg
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0010.jpg
This photo shows the width of the slide, with the two skiers on the left and right borders.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0013.jpg
This photo is deceptive. The crown is at the upper right hand corner, the rest of what appears to be a crown is not. It's shallow snow that lured us out there in the first place, but we didn't pay enough attention to the fact that it deepened and was all loaded up like a trap.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0014.jpg
I call this the "RETARDS" photo. Look at what those retards skinned into, no wonder they got rolled. The snow leading into it was not wind loaded or slabby at all, but it changed quickly. Unfortunately we decided to turn around 10ft too late and got a lesson from old Mother Nature.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0016.jpg
Another retrospective photo. Again, the crown is not what it looks like. If you look at the slide patch, that will give you an idea of the crown width. The right border of the slide path was where we first discussed cutting back to the ridge, as that was where we first encountered the wind slab. Again, hindsight is 20/20, should have turned back right then, and not continued on that last 10-15ft before making a kick turn.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0019.jpg
The reset button has been pushed, we all got humbled. And although I usually consider myself conservative and willing to back off, today the decision to back off just happened about 15ft or 30 seconds too late, even though we all recognized the danger but didn't respect it enough. The consequences for going for a ride here are very high, and we were obviously very lucky.
The turns out to the road were refreshing.
http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/IMAG0021.jpg
^^^
Nice write up. Glad no one had any damage.
Thanks for sharing. Hard to "lay it all out there" sometimes, but is always educational. A good reminder that you play for keeps out there, and that the margin of safety can be very slim.
Glad you are safe buddy. Sounds like a scary morning out.
Glad you all made it down safely, D. Shaken up, no doubt, but alright. Thanks for the candid reporting.
Glad you're alright man, and everyone you were with. Thanks for the quick write up.
Glad you and your party came out safe D....
Glad you and your partners are OK, TH.
A guy was caught in that area in the mid '80s, went almost to the road and didn't survive.
You are right, potential consequences there are bad.
Thanks for sharing your story and insights. Glad all is well!
Luck, knowledge, timing and good/bad decisions are blurry lines sometimes. Glad you came out on the good end of it all today.
PS, thanks for not waiting for me this morning;)
thanks for sharing. sometimes a little bad can be good, i.e. your reset button. glad yer all ok!!!!
Great post TH. Thanks.
Luck is a superstitious belief. Odds are, if you ski enough in the mountains, at one point or another you will be involved in too much snow moving too fast down the mountain. In twenty years, this is my 3rd incident involving moving snow that had the potential to kill me. There have been plenty of other incidents that were related to rockfall, crevasse falls, etc, but as far as avalanches, this is number 3 for me. I'd just assume not count any higher.Quote:
Originally Posted by zion zig zag
Pretty humbling and a quite helpless feeling to see all that snow coming down on you when you're skinning and have nowhere to go. Then the post slide silence, waiting for your friends to chime in that they are ok..............
Regardless, I can't wait to get out again, albeit on some lower angled stuff.;)
Shitballs....
That is some ass-puckering stuff for those involved AND from the perspective of those of us who are no where as seasoned as him....Goes to show, mother nature does not give 2 shits about who you are and your intentions. When it goes wrong, it goes...
Thanks for sharing, humbling for everyone.
Wow TH, that looked intense. I was just up there on Thanksgiving and ran into some similar wind slab. I ended up doing some sketchy kick turns on bulletproof all around the rocky ridge edge and got away with walking right through some slab on high ivory. Good job on the report and the self arrest! We kept it a bit mellower today...
http://www.zachclantonphotography.co...-for-web-2.jpg
Damn D, glad to hear everything worked out for you and the crew. Scary for sure, did you hear any collapsing/wumphing before the slide?
This wind has been nuts, same aspect different drainage, I've found totally different snowpack conditions. Windslab to Blower...
No, everything was good to go, just an isolated pocket with consequences. The avi report nailed it dead nuts accurate.......Quote:
Originally Posted by JTrue
We didn't go up and inspect the crown, just skied home. It seemed to be a shallow snowpack phenomenon with a booby trap over it.
That spot on the approach to Superior always sucks, and always gets your attention. Some days more than others.
The important question - Did you lose your poles?
I've only been up superior a couple of times, but I remember not liking that spot and another one near the top of superior where you kind of hang out over LCC. Your story reminds me why.
Glad you're okay.
Stay safe my friend. Good to hear the only damage was to the ego. Made me rethink my own decisions for tomorrow.