Wasatch Conditions 09-10

With such a stellar day on tap in the Cottonwoods, we didn't want to contribute to the parking problem;) So it was off to another 'urban' line.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/003-3.jpg

Didn't know white carrots existed but my buddy enlightened me.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/008-2.jpg

Rush hour is happening down there. No rush up here.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/009-1.jpg

Zach Clanton. Oh how snowboarders love halfpipes
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...4071533063.jpg

Weed!!
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/021-2.jpg

CT @ 8k northwest found some easy shears about 1' down but deeper layers behaved well.

^^^^^
thated be a good place for a hippy hut;)
Yesterday aside from Officer T of the unified sumthin giving somerunning late slacker skibum a ticket 4 speeding and the evil Mr. Sun baking the pow to soon leading to a manky 420 exit
stellerness

A rather impressive crown on Monte Cristo and a rather impressive snowboard track down the north face of Superior (not exactly wasatch wiggles)
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/008-4.jpg

In Days I heard someone cry out "Oh my God he's lapping us!". I see this red blurr switch from ski to climb mode in about the time it takes me to down a GU packet. Then the thing took off running uphill. One of the blurr's partners confirmed to me that it was in fact Mr. McLean.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/009-2.jpg

To top it off I see 4 chicks following him up the ridge. Maybe he should change his screen name from StraightChuter to Big Pimpin'! Haha. Just kidding man I know you're married.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/010-1.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark H

With such a stellar day on tap in the Cottonwoods, we didn't want to contribute to the parking problem;) So it was off to another 'urban' line.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/003-3.jpg

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Did you guys ski the "Urban Days Fork" to the west too? Fun urban hanging bowl to lay tracks in, then admire the boulevard.

set out bright and early to get coalpit headwall with whapworth and telethor. i won't name names but two of the three in our party decided they couldn't make it past the y for various reasons, and i wasn't one of them :tongue:. the top couple hundred vert skied VERY well, super consolidated creamy pow, while the rest was variable with some very nice skiing and some not so nice. there's a nice booter up it, and it seemed very stable with only some minor sluffing occurring, though there was a ton of sugar underneath. watch out for chunks coming down on top of you, i got beaned in the head by a little one and ducked a larger one at the last second! might post some pov after i take a look at it if it looks decent. all in all a good day, fun to get away from the masses (kind of).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ectreeskier11

set out bright and early to get coalpit headwall with whapworth and telethor. i won't name names but two of the three in our party decided they couldn't make it past the y for various reasons, and i wasn't one of them :tongue:.

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True... whap looked like he was about to pass out and I seriously thought he was coughing up blood at one point. Me? I have to get these new boots dialed. Fun morning though.

Nate:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_YueaKb4ebBc/S8...0/IMG_0291.JPG

yeah wills somehow managed to get sick at the top of the y after crushing the booter. i mean he was trucking. if i'd known you were taking pictures i would've leaned em over a little more!

was up in this area today........

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...z/P1010194.jpg


didn't get the objective, but still found nice snow on shaded NE aspects:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...z/P1010207.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark H

To top it off I see 4 chicks following him up the ridge. Maybe he should change his screen name from StraightChuter to Big Pimpin'! Haha. Just kidding man I know you're married.

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No apologies required - since this is Utah, all four of them are my wives and the other one is at home watching the kids. :)

That was a fun day - it was good seeing you out there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

Did you guys ski the "Urban Days Fork" to the west too? Fun urban hanging bowl to lay tracks in, then admire the boulevard.

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Unfortunately no. Anything with a hint of west got totally jacked by the wind.



So I was all ready for Lisa Falls yesterday morning then my buddy bails out at 4:30 a.m.... Nice.

Instead I find myself wandering up Mill B, feeling sorry for myself about not doing Lisa Falls. Then I see this inspiring sight: Here is this guy just happy as a clown to be postholing in shorts and tennis shoes all the way to Lake Blanche. Almost as inspiring as that guy who rode the tow rope at Alta :)
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/001-1.jpg

High winds and dust layer combined to make upper Mill B look like a bunch of piss stains
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h..._228/003-4.jpg

hahah we saw the rando crowd coming out of lisa falls yesterday. hope i don't offend anyone on this board by saying that they are a ridiculous looking bunch, dynafit tights and all. i'm sure they'd smoke me on the up (at least i'd hope...) but man, i don't know how much fun it'd be coming down on those little sticks.

So did that 15'' of snow in upper LCC get manky today? Will high north be good tomorrow?

Sun was out a bit
Skied a lap off backside Claytons pretty variable
10410 down to blood lake $$$ in sheltered trees
10420 down to guard road good high but got manky quick
Skinned back up cheesewhiz or sumthing to other side of hidden canyon ~ 9k
snow had set up and every steep slope cut slid ran full track on bed surface
I'd be hittin it early and watching exposed exits

yo-yo's on N facing were fun
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3113.jpg

Lots of small soft slabs moved throughout the day, though all the pockets we encountered were so soft they didnt present much hazard
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3114.jpg

South and west were still skiing well at 5pm when the clouds cleared, but the snow was already changing to wet glop minutes after taking this picture.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3174.jpg

^^^^nice^^^

Indeed it was a day not to be missed.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...ineSummit2.jpg

Thanks to my buddy Alecs Barton for these pics
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...ettinDEEP5.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...rkPinkPine.jpg

!!!
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...GettinDEEP.jpg

today rocked.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mark H

Instead I find myself wandering up Mill B, feeling sorry for myself about not doing Lisa Falls. Then I see this inspiring sight: Here is this guy just happy as a clown to be postholing in shorts and tennis shoes all the way to Lake Blanche.

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So just how many grams of shrooms had he eaten? :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Gnarwhale

Lots of small soft slabs moved throughout the day, though all the pockets we encountered were so soft they didnt present much hazard
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3114.jpg

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Great shot!

^thanks, just good luck on the timing

We started at headlamp-o'clock to beat the sun
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3206.jpg

Small to medium sized soft slabs were easy to trigger and were faster running than yesterday.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3218.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3231.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3268.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3278.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3303.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StraightChuter

No apologies required - since this is Utah, all four of them are my wives and the other one is at home watching the kids. :)

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In that case, why not buy some numbered jerseys to help keep track of who's who and then organize 'em into a trailbreaking team? "Well ladies, I plan on starting about six, so if y'all could just have the skinner in..."

skied the y today.

good snow found in the top 1/3. the rest, well the rest was interesting. skiing on that dust layer isn't fun.

on a more technical note:

what nighttime low air temperature do you consider low enough to create a good refreeze?

do you consider the difference between daytime high and nighttime low?

Is there a certain nighttime low air temperature that is too high and makes the risk of wet slides to high in your opinion to ski the next day?

any thoughts or observations would be great, thanks

^
cloudy vs clear has a significant impact... aka radiational cooling

http://www.hko.gov.hk/education/edu0...adcoolinge.htm

Nice "look back".
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...b/IMG_3218.jpg

South and east aspects had supportable crust/pseudo corn at 9am. Skinning is still the preferred method of ascent due to deep booting and lack of any consolidation below the surface.

Tis the season for no probe, shovel, beacon. Leave the food and water at home too, just go light.:p
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2007024_n.jpg

Some shots of the last couple days.

[ame="http://www.vimeo.com/10970663"]April Powder on Vimeo[/ame]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ectreeskier11

hahah we saw the rando crowd coming out of lisa falls yesterday. hope i don't offend anyone on this board by saying that they are a ridiculous looking bunch, dynafit tights and all. i'm sure they'd smoke me on the up (at least i'd hope...) but man, i don't know how much fun it'd be coming down on those little sticks.

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That rando crowd was the SLC Samurai and his fellow warriors. http://slc-samurai.blogspot.com/2010...isa-falls.html. After reading his TR I don't feel quite so bad about doing Lisa Falls........


No season in the Wasatch is complete without a trip to good old Coalpit right?

Not a fan of the standard approaches to Coalpit so......right up the gut!
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...skiing/010.jpg

Forrest Shearer joined us
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...skiing/017.jpg

Forrest had his eye on this line....
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...restline-1.jpg

but the headwall was beckoning
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...skiing/015.jpg

The crew (left to right). Forrest, myself, Zach, and Alecs taking the pic.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...alpitRidge.jpg

Conditions allowed us to skin the whole ridge
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...skiing/028.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h.../UpCPRidge.jpg

Always a pleasure to see the east face of Lone.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...skiing/031.jpg

So close to the city, yet so far...
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...skiing/036.jpg

Me looking for the crappiest way down.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...kinCoalpit.jpg

Forrest "so good, people pay him to do this" Shearer launches in.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...wnCoalpit2.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...ownCoalpit.jpg
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...wnCoalpit3.jpg

Forrest's run as seen from the bottom.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...4140933281.jpg

Zach had fun
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...4140937102.jpg

but wait there's more!
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...wnCoalpit3.jpg

the chute on the left side of the waterfall is filled in so we bypassed the rope
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...stComeDown.jpg

lower gully was slop when we got to it around noon
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...lpitGully2.jpg

Thanks to Alecs and his Canon 7D for many of these pics

sick! 123