Wasatch 23/24 Stoke Thread: Red Snake Coverage coming at you live from tgapp's fartba

Got another shady opening today. It was pretty great, worth walking back 3 times.

Love the rolling openings. All things considered we are doing great, hope everyone else is having as good of a season as me.

I was talking to a couple patrollers at the end of the traverse. I was trying to better understand the gate opening policy as well as the boundaries. The first one was like talking to a lawyer, then the other one (with a much more relaxed vibe) realized I was asking genuine questions about touring around the edges of the resort, not rope ducking. He was much more forthcoming explaining high altar. But I have a question that still isn't answered re the white pine gate. My assumption is that one could easily drop a cornice/trigger a slide above gad 2 terrain, so opening the gate is subject to patrol being ok with the conditions along that ridgeline. Am I wrong?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e12b6d041f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a9061b8087.jpg

Sent from my CPH2417 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crankplank

My assumption is that one could easily drop a cornice/trigger a slide above gad 2 terrain, so opening the gate is subject to patrol being ok with the conditions along that ridgeline. Am I wrong?

Sent from my CPH2417 using Tapatalk

---

I would guess it plays a part in the decision to open/close. It's been a few years now, but I was up there once and some dipshits were trying to stomp the cornice into Gad2. I told them they were fucking idiots and they were gonna get the gate closed. Guess what, it was closed the next lap.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tgapp

I had a primary dislocation of my left shoulder while skiing the Deseret twin couloirs, and that was an unbearable amount of pain. Getting that back in my shoulder (which happened about 9 hours post dislocation) was like a light switch where the pain magically flipped off. The fact that you got that reset so quickly is unbelievably lucky.

---

Holy shit! 9 hours! And skiing/hiking out! You a tough mofo. That was misery beyond comprehension.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tgapp

what you want is the Ogden Nordic ski trail, the Cutler trailhead

it's still a little bony - we need another storm - but that's got both touring and Nordic skiing at the same trailhead

there is no Nordic to speak of at Basin

pm me if you need more beta

girlfriends first ski lesson todayhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3968117f41.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

---

if she had the same stoked smile at the end of the day
= winning
the bird and skiing with friends didnt suck yesterday
missed my sfotex grom crew
ran into a troller we share summer piscatorial pursuits with and the birds newest working god candidate
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds
cutlers good shit cool terrain and always a good vibe there
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by headrush

Holy shit! 9 hours! And skiing/hiking out! You a tough mofo. That was misery beyond comprehension.

---

Genuine question here, why did you not try to reset / traction in the field?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D-Roc

Genuine question here, why did you not try to reset / traction in the field?

---

Genuine question: why do you think we didn't?

It's pretty easy to be an armchair quarterback when reading an accident report you weren't party to. Lord knows I've done the same thing plenty of times (including with your own avalanche partial burial), and for good reason - it helps separate us (the well prepared, the smart ones, the ones who will do everything right) from those losers who get their asses kicked because they weren't prepared enough or they didn't do the right things.

Took about 45 minutes to an hour to get out of the slide path. Every step was head-spinning, blackout -inducing pain where my vision would narrow and I would fight to stay conscious. Vomitted a few times. Spent the next hour and a half trying to reset, two wilderness first responders and an NP. We tried two different reset protocols (one that the NP knew and the one taught by NOLS that one of the WFRs knew) and could not get it back in - my shoulder was too seized up. Took all the pain meds I safely could (oxycodone, hydrocodone, and tramadol and a ton of weed, while rationing others for a potential overnight stay), and even then I was still experiencing breakthru pain. By the time I made it to our tent I was hypothermic and in mild shock. Drank a liter of hot tea, got in a sleeping bag and did my best to disassociate, but was still barely hanging on.


At the UofU ER they had to give me three rounds of intravenous fentanyl to get my shoulder reset. On the last and final round they told me if it didn't work then I would need to be sedated and admitted overnight for supervision. That was enough motivation for me to bite into a belt and let them do whatever it took to get my shoulder back in.


----

I've talked about this before in the TRGz but before that accident I thought I was prepared and I always thumbed my nose at folks who couldn't self-rescue or who didn't take backcountry preparedness seriously. I thought that I had done everything right, I had pain meds and a trauma kit and we even had a tent and a stove and all sorts of shit. We were both WFRs for crying out loud, and even after all of our preparations, we still needed to get our asses rescued. Humbling, to say the least - brutally humbling. Shit's not serious until it is, and when it gets serious, it gets real serious real quick.

----

TFW spent some time teaching me a new way to reset a shoulder that they teach the trollers at Snowbird, and I sure hope I never have to use it....but I'm glad to know it.

---

Sorry for the rambling post. Hope that's helpful. I think that folks who haven't dealt with a serious accident (either in the capacity of victim or responder) can treat emergency preparedness as a checklist; once all the boxes have check marks, you're good to send it! Anyone who gets fucked up, it's obviously because they didn't check all the boxes.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

Ship landing at spruces now. Vibes if needed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tgapp

Genuine question: why do you think we didn't?

It's pretty easy to be an armchair quarterback when reading an accident report you weren't party to. Lord knows I've done the same thing plenty of times (including with your own avalanche partial burial), and for good reason - it helps separate us (the well prepared, the smart ones, the ones who will do everything right) from those losers who get their asses kicked because they weren't prepared enough or they didn't do the right things.

Took about 45 minutes to an hour to get out of the slide path. Every step was head-spinning, blackout -inducing pain where my vision would narrow and I would fight to stay conscious. Vomitted a few times. Spent the next hour and a half trying to reset, two wilderness first responders and an NP. We tried two different reset protocols (one that the NP knew and the one taught by NOLS that one of the WFRs knew) and could not get it back in - my shoulder was too seized up. Took all the pain meds I safely could (oxycodone, hydrocodone, and tramadol and a ton of weed, while rationing others for a potential overnight stay), and even then I was still experiencing breakthru pain. By the time I made it to our tent I was hypothermic and in mild shock. Drank a liter of hot tea, got in a sleeping bag and did my best to disassociate, but was still barely hanging on.


At the UofU ER they had to give me three rounds of intravenous fentanyl to get my shoulder reset. On the last and final round they told me if it didn't work then I would need to be sedated and admitted overnight for supervision. That was enough motivation for me to bite into a belt and let them do whatever it took to get my shoulder back in.


----

I've talked about this before in the TRGz but before that accident I thought I was prepared and I always thumbed my nose at folks who couldn't self-rescue or who didn't take backcountry preparedness seriously. I thought that I had done everything right, I had pain meds and a trauma kit and we even had a tent and a stove and all sorts of shit. We were both WFRs for crying out loud, and even after all of our preparations, we still needed to get our asses rescued. Humbling, to say the least - brutally humbling. Shit's not serious until it is, and when it gets serious, it gets real serious real quick.

----

TFW spent some time teaching me a new way to reset a shoulder that they teach the trollers at Snowbird, and I sure hope I never have to use it....but I'm glad to know it.

---

Sorry for the rambling post. Hope that's helpful. I think that folks who haven't dealt with a serious accident (either in the capacity of victim or responder) can treat emergency preparedness as a checklist; once all the boxes have check marks, you're good to send it! Anyone who gets fucked up, it's obviously because they didn't check all the boxes.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

---

Hell I'm one to talk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D-Roc

Hell I'm one to talk

---

Sorry that came across wrong I didn't mean to be a dick to ya man

Definitely learned a lot and I hope to be humble (and lucky) enough to learn a lot more


Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tBatt

Anyone wanna come pull cat 6 cable with me? Hiring a full time year round position.

https://www.alta.com/telecommunications-technician

---

Pm sent


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tgapp

Sorry that came across wrong I didn't mean to be a dick to ya man

Definitely learned a lot and I hope to be humble (and lucky) enough to learn a lot more


Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

---

Never taken that way, thanks for sharing

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Djongo Unchained

Man, I gotta get back to the Wasatch asap.

---

Speaking the truth! Hope you can make it soon

tgapp - that's a hell of a story - thanks for sharing. I know, notwithstanding all the stuff I do to be "prepared," I'm relying a lot on just being lucky and things not going wrong. Pretty risky stuff really.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by alias_rice

Things are getting firm at Alta, but the kids found some soft turns eventually. The forecast is looking a little grim though.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...49815eebf3.jpg




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

---

I'm still dreaming of a white Christmas. Forecast is showing less than preferred but it's something to get this air moved out.

vibes Tgapp...hope you heal up 100%

I been lucky and hauled myself off the hill each time, nothin worse than grade 2 ligament type stuff...

the shoulder sounds painful ! I did a separation years back at killington...15 ft jump turned into a 100 ft header when the skis grabbed on landing and ejected me like a cannon, way higher than the treetops next to the trail. Used my arm to reduce the impact to my neck.

Anyways, hope u feel better soon!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by baron

vibes Tgapp...hope you heal up 100%

I been lucky and hauled myself off the hill each time, nothin worse than grade 2 ligament type stuff...

the shoulder sounds painful ! I did a separation years back at killington...15 ft jump turned into a 100 ft header when the skis grabbed on landing and ejected me like a cannon, way higher than the treetops next to the trail. Used my arm to reduce the impact to my neck.

Anyways, hope u feel better soon!

---

Oh sorry I was responding to headrush's shoulder injury story from Solly this week, that happened a few years back.

Got my shoulder repaired and rehabbed and I'm in great shape. Well, I'm in terrible shape but through no fault of my shoulder.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crankplank

Got another shady opening today. It was pretty great, worth walking back 3 times.

Love the rolling openings. All things considered we are doing great, hope everyone else is having as good of a season as me.

I was talking to a couple patrollers at the end of the traverse. I was trying to better understand the gate opening policy as well as the boundaries. The first one was like talking to a lawyer, then the other one (with a much more relaxed vibe) realized I was asking genuine questions about touring around the edges of the resort, not rope ducking. He was much more forthcoming explaining high altar. But I have a question that still isn't answered re the white pine gate. My assumption is that one could easily drop a cornice/trigger a slide above gad 2 terrain, so opening the gate is subject to patrol being ok with the conditions along that ridgeline. Am I wrong?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e12b6d041f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a9061b8087.jpg

Sent from my CPH2417 using Tapatalk

---

Yeah, we're doing better than the east, with Irene putting the snowpack in folk's basements...

About ski area boundaries on FS land: A ski area cannot close the boundary; you may legally duck a rope if it is on the boundary.
What ski areas can do is control access to the ski area boundary; you cannot duck a closed rope within the ski area.
The boundaries in Mineral are unmarked, vague, and at least when I worked there, we had sign lines past our permit area.
Don't know where the permit area is now that Mary Ellen is in the mix...
When I was opening access to the GVWP ridge, we would thoroughly test slopes within the boundary and open access.
Problem there being that legally after a certain year we weren't allowed to warn about specific places like the Birthday Chutes.
The Birthday's are an anomaly in WP; they are textbook N facing slide paths and have all of upper WP as a fetch with our prevailing winds.
So I didn't open access when I thought the Birthday's looked pregnant and were in killing form.
When folks hit the ridge and see them, they are so drawn to them.
Can't believe no one has died there, yet.
Matter of time...

A ski area is not allowed to test for let alone mitigate avalanches in their FS side country...
Kind of a bummer, no?

Alta used to shoot patsy with an avalauncher. It’s been a few years since they’ve done that. Any idea if they were allowed to do that via the special use permit? Or if that permission was revoked? I was under the impression they stopped doing it as they felt it encouraged people to ski patsy under suspect conditions, since they would see bomb holes in the gut.

I believe Patsy is part of Alta's permit area, no?
Problem with Patsy is unless there's a road closure folks are everywhere.
Best not to shoot anymore and just use some closure underneath for a while when warranted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tgapp

Genuine question: why do you think we didn't?

It's pretty easy to be an armchair quarterback when reading an accident report you weren't party to. Lord knows I've done the same thing plenty of times (including with your own avalanche partial burial), and for good reason - it helps separate us (the well prepared, the smart ones, the ones who will do everything right) from those losers who get their asses kicked because they weren't prepared enough or they didn't do the right things.

Took about 45 minutes to an hour to get out of the slide path. Every step was head-spinning, blackout -inducing pain where my vision would narrow and I would fight to stay conscious. Vomitted a few times. Spent the next hour and a half trying to reset, two wilderness first responders and an NP. We tried two different reset protocols (one that the NP knew and the one taught by NOLS that one of the WFRs knew) and could not get it back in - my shoulder was too seized up. Took all the pain meds I safely could (oxycodone, hydrocodone, and tramadol and a ton of weed, while rationing others for a potential overnight stay), and even then I was still experiencing breakthru pain. By the time I made it to our tent I was hypothermic and in mild shock. Drank a liter of hot tea, got in a sleeping bag and did my best to disassociate, but was still barely hanging on.


At the UofU ER they had to give me three rounds of intravenous fentanyl to get my shoulder reset. On the last and final round they told me if it didn't work then I would need to be sedated and admitted overnight for supervision. That was enough motivation for me to bite into a belt and let them do whatever it took to get my shoulder back in.


----

I've talked about this before in the TRGz but before that accident I thought I was prepared and I always thumbed my nose at folks who couldn't self-rescue or who didn't take backcountry preparedness seriously. I thought that I had done everything right, I had pain meds and a trauma kit and we even had a tent and a stove and all sorts of shit. We were both WFRs for crying out loud, and even after all of our preparations, we still needed to get our asses rescued. Humbling, to say the least - brutally humbling. Shit's not serious until it is, and when it gets serious, it gets real serious real quick.

----

TFW spent some time teaching me a new way to reset a shoulder that they teach the trollers at Snowbird, and I sure hope I never have to use it....but I'm glad to know it.

---

Sorry for the rambling post. Hope that's helpful. I think that folks who haven't dealt with a serious accident (either in the capacity of victim or responder) can treat emergency preparedness as a checklist; once all the boxes have check marks, you're good to send it! Anyone who gets fucked up, it's obviously because they didn't check all the boxes.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

---

Great post tgapp

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 2FUNKY

Pm sent


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

---

!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by telefreewasatch

I believe Patsy is part of Alta's permit area, no?
Problem with Patsy is unless there's a road closure folks are everywhere.
Best not to shoot anymore and just use some closure underneath for a while when warranted.

---

I don’t believe that it is. As it’s come up in land swap discussions over the last few years. But I could be mistaken and it’s part of the permit but there’s the possibility of trading private land to the FS to make it private.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Djongo Unchained

Man, I gotta get back to the Wasatch asap.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by schindlerpiste

If need be, you can crash here for a few days whenever.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by telefreewasatch

You know where I live...

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shaaarrrp

Speaking the truth! Hope you can make it soon

---

Thanks for the gracious offers my friends. I hope to turn with the mags of the Wasatch soon.
Truly one of the greatest collections of ski bums in a localized community. From the FOG's with all the knowledges to the nkotb's looking for a life. Git sum.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by telefreewasatch

So I didn't open access when I thought the Birthday's looked pregnant and were in killing form.

---

When I skied Snowbird, 2006 to maybe 2015?, those gates during some of those years (not all) were closed for months straight (or I just missed gate openings and was a gaper). Pissed me off as not every day was high danger, ha. Other years they were open more often, but never right after a storm which totally makes sense. Whenever they opened - finally - it seemed like a very cautious wait but very reasonable.

Seemed like a policy change at some point (i wasn't keeping track when) to move to rarely open them most of the season and just wait for springtime?

I’d reckon December of 08 was a time of policy changes.