Wasatch 08-09 Conditions

[skifishbum]

BAAAAAAAAA

[Johnny Deep]

BAAAAAAAAA

Mill Creek Elk?

[the vor]

Definetly wet. Decent turns North facing mid-morning around 8.5K. Horrible slop and glop around noon on South exit. Minor wet release and pinwheeling on North aspect.

[JTrue]

A couple more pics from Cascade







I swear he has goggs

[sfotex]

Jebus H Christ. The Wasatch condition thread was on page 6 and it's still February!!!


Decided to head up north and went up Ben Lomand peak.
It was dust on a nice smooth crust, about like skiing a groomer top to bottom.
A great day to be out.


Saw the Ogden slope stability test team at it on the way up:


They got 4 sleds at the same time down the slope in the center.
Green Light!!




So nice to be out of the canyons for a change..

[RTR]

^Nice work, Mike.

We went south to avoid any crowding in the Canyons. We saw four people zip down the south face of Bighorn Peak... three red jackets, and one yellow jacket. I wondered if they were mags. We were in the south bowl of Lone Peak, thinking that we'd find corn in the sun. It was just crust with a little mush on top. We did see some wet slides coming off of the cliffs, but other than that, everything was concrete.

Had to deal with a lot of this on the way up.


...until we got to some of this...


...then there was copious amounts of bushwhacking...


And the sojourn back to the car seems to never end.


It REALLY felt like spring out there, today. Even early summer-ish. Ready for new snow.

[Trackhead]

Nice to see people getting out and about.

[Bud Green]

It was a sunny Saturday in Wasangeles which dictates skiing in the wilderness areas to avoid the hordes and the fucking helicopters in the central Wasatch. We saw six people all day: four flip-floppers and two skiers.

We wanted to ski this:



Two of us skied the couloir that drops from the lookers right summit and two skied the couloir that drops from the left summit. Both lines involved negotiating some rocks and cliff bands.

When we pulled into the parking lot, Trackhead's car was there. I know he likes to pretend he drives a Porsche, but he actually drives a stretch PT Cruiser. We were hoping he wasn't going to poach our lines. Luckily we never ran into his crew.



We knew we were on the right path to the goods when we spotted these sheep droppings:



We walked on dirt and frozen snow to the First Hamongog. The Chuting Gallery says Hamongog is "a biblical word for 'meadow'; modern translation 'a good place to hunt sheep'."

Traversing to our line across the corniced summit ridge. No sheep scat up here:



Looking down our line. The Chuting Gallery says it's 50 degrees:



Dropping in:





Then we went over and skied the west-facing couloir that drops from the summit of South Thunder Mountain:



We then went to the top of Bighorn Peak and skied down the SW face to the car.

We went south to avoid any crowding in the Canyons. We saw four people zip down the south face of Bighorn Peak... three red jackets, and one yellow jacket. I wondered if they were mags. We were in the south bowl of Lone Peak, thinking that we'd find corn in the sun. It was just crust with a little mush on top. We did see some wet slides coming off of the cliffs, but other than that, everything was concrete.

The aspect we skied was actually really good and smooth. Lower down there was even some excellent corn on the west facing. For the most part, good skiing on all aspects. Nice, chalky conditions in both NE and W facing chutes. Most crusts we encountered were soft enough to bust through.

We kicked off a couple of small wet slides on the warmest SW aspect. Other than that, stable snow.

[Trackhead]

Nice tour BG. And thanks for "pimping my ride"

Motivation was near non-existent today. But DTM was still coerced into taking the sheep for a short walk up Red Baldy.

Skied the NE aspect. Sensitive wind loading on this aspect at the top. Then firm neve the rest of the way. Strong winds from the west and southwest.


Mid canyon cut off a nice little suprise......on a steeper slope, with more consequences, bad things could happen.


50-75ft wide, sensitive little wind slab running about 100 or so feet down yonder.

[RTR]

We then went to the top of Bighorn Peak and skied down the SW face to the car.

The aspect we skied was actually really good and smooth. Lower down there was even some excellent corn on the west facing. For the most part, good skiing on all aspects. Nice, chalky conditions in both NE and W facing chutes. Most crusts we encountered were soft enough to bust through.

We kicked off a couple of small wet slides on the warmest SW aspect. Other than that, stable snow.

Thought you might appreciate seeing another view of your handy-work:
(Look closely, and you'll see a red-jacketed skier, and a yellow-jacketed on-looker)




I thought about yelling "Change for a nickel?" to you guys... but then figured that it would ruin everyone's sheep scat-evading wilderness experience.



However, I find it ironic to have tried to avoid the crowds, yet there were Trackhead's PT and Bud Green's crew's cars in the parking lot south of Lone. We were in Dayna's 4Runner, who unfortunately pulled her hip flexor about half way up, and we were limited to baby steps on the skin track. No cars at the trailhead when we got back down at 7:00 p.m.

[Trackhead]

However, I find it ironic to have tried to avoid the crowds, yet there were Trackhead's PT and Bud Green's crew's cars in the parking lot south of Lone.

PT is actually Xover's. This is my car.

[Xover]

very noice BG; very noice!! that very same tour is one i thought'd be fun to link up after dtm and i's outing last weekend. how'd that thing below treat you guys??

[zion zig zag]

Wow, good job on getting out there guys. I went climbing today, it was really fun but I felt guilty all day looking at the peaks.

[Xover]

Saturday 2/29/09 went to where you pass tantalizing shots like this on the approach:


Get to top, turn head one way, see this:


Turn head the other way w/out moving your feet and see this:


Obs: warm, but not to warm to cause a natural wet cylce where we were at. the 3" of snow that lcc & bcc got only translated to 1/2" at the most which made for some excellent corn skiing on a supportable base if that was what you were after. saw some signs (rollers, pin wheels, etc.) of minor wet activity from day before, but did not encounter any on what we were skiing. also saw signs of now buried soft slabs; most likely from wind during previous week or 10 days. again, kicked off none of these while skiing. ne open face(s) from 11 to 10k had slots of soft, turnable pow; approx 10k to 8k in shade or trees had the same; below that switched aspects to se and found superb corn to the parking lot. the nw winds late last week pounded the upper faces of this region pretty hard and have to put your thinking cap on and turn on your "snow eyes" to find good, rideable, settle pow that didn't get a skin on it .... but it is out there .... just got to hunt a little. p.s. south facing corn down here would've been off the charts; keep an eye out for that in the very near future.

[Bud Green]

Thought you might appreciate seeing another view of your handy-work:
(Look closely, and you'll see a red-jacketed skier, and a yellow-jacketed on-looker)

That's Bud in the red jacket.

very noice BG; very noice!! that very same tour is one i thought'd be fun to link up after dtm and i's outing last weekend. how'd that thing below treat you guys??

Couloir consisted of nice chalk (about 40 degrees) and the apron was fast, carveable foam. Fun line. By the way, that photo was taken last Saturday when we were poaching lines in Big Willow. Surprisingly, it's almost exactly the same as the one you took.

[marauders]

This is some fine stuff! I love the pics.

[madturtle]

Any SLC locals game to show a CA boy around the Wasatch or just meet up for beers? Headed to SLC w/ mrs MT wed-sunday this week. We'll probly hit the resort wed afternoon after getting off the plane.

S'posed to catch up w/ Tri-U over the weekend if his knee is better by then. But really like to get out for a couple good tours during the week or w/e if any mags would be willing to show us around it'd be mucho appreciated. We're down to ski whatever conditions warrant, it'd be great to bag a descent size peak if the weather clears later in the week. I'll buy drinks afterwards and can certainly show you around tahoe or the eastern sierra better than most if you ever head out this way. thanks.

[zion zig zag]

Corn cycle seemed to last about 15 minutes today and then it turned to a wierd stop and go slidey mess. But at least the wind was blowing 60+ mph on the ridges.


ugh.

[gramps]

this has got to end sometime, one more winter storm cycle please? On the other hand I've had great skiing this past week, but we could use some freshening up...

[Trackhead]

this has got to end sometime, one more winter storm cycle please?

Come on Gramps.... You should be pumping out on Bong Eater or something.

Wasatch-home of THE most spoiled skiers on the planet.

[PartyVan]

Heading out to visit the University of Utah tomorrow morning and going to get some skiing in this weekend. Conditions out there look way better than whats left of the snow here in Western NY.

[gramps]

Come on Gramps.... You should be pumping out on Bong Eater or something.

Wasatch-home of THE most spoiled skiers on the planet.

Too early still, I'm finally getting into skiing. I think I may be a sledneck in the next little bit here, I'll be calling for beta...

[MultiVerse]

Got up early, but temps were already in the high fifties on the east bench at 6:00 AM… went up here anyway:



To give the dogs some exercise:



Not much fun because, well, the snow was a mess. Got some work done and then rode up (lots of roadies out despite the wind) East Canyon via emigration looking for sheep of a different sort:


At this time last year, even East Canyon was deeeep and good for fast dawn patrols, or even a short drive for good skiing on Bald Mountain… now it’s mostly barren and nearly rideable on a Mtn bike.

Waaaah… what do mean spoiled? Aren’t we entitled to good skiing within a fifteen minute drive of our house?

[Tri-Ungulate]

Any SLC locals game to show a CA boy around the Wasatch or just meet up for beers? Headed to SLC w/ mrs MT wed-sunday this week. We'll probly hit the resort wed afternoon after getting off the plane.

S'posed to catch up w/ Tri-U over the weekend if his knee is better by then. But really like to get out for a couple good tours during the week or w/e if any mags would be willing to show us around it'd be mucho appreciated. We're down to ski whatever conditions warrant, it'd be great to bag a descent size peak if the weather clears later in the week. I'll buy drinks afterwards and can certainly show you around tahoe or the eastern sierra better than most if you ever head out this way. thanks.

I can vouch for madturtle, having toured with him in the Eastern Sierras. He's good people and a safe, competent skier. My workweek sucks and I tweaked my knee at the Big LePowski doing something stupid and ending up shorting a tabletop, so I'm out until Saturday at the earliest. Somebody oughta take him up since I can't - c'mon Wasnatchers, show him some hospitality.

[RTR]

I dragged my butt up Cardiff Pass, this morning... abjectly slipping up a very steep skin track. Had to turn around and head down before actually getting to the "top," in order to make it to a meeting at work. There was virtually no bonding of the new snow (maybe 8-10") in highly sun-baked aspects. Be careful out there. Even the skinning was problematic, at points. No activity seen or heard.

The sleepy town of Alta.


Not a bad way to start the morning.