Wasatch 08-09 Conditions

**Trackhead** · 03-05-2009, 12:46 PM

Made a couple laps in the Sheep Pen on south Flag this morning. Fun skiing, but I'm sure plenty will complain. Very few folks out this morning, seems people are over it.

Skied with reckless abandon, no beacon, no shovel, no probe, no partner. Felt fine with the south facing conditions. Only insignificant slow moving sluffs.

**sfotex** · 03-05-2009, 01:44 PM

I met another Brighton employee this morning.

Nice chap.. I was booting up with my foot on the rear bumper and came about 6" from getting nailed..

&%#^@%$%^

He said the bag of weed in the pocket of the XXXXXXL puffy he was wearing got wedged under the brake pedal and he couldn't stop in time.

**RTR** · 03-05-2009, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by sfotex

I met another Brighton employee this morning.

Nice chap.. I was booting up with my foot on the rear bumper and came about 6" from getting nailed..

&%#^@%$%^

I thought you were saving your energy, and planning on getting rear-ended, tomorrow?

**sfotex** · 03-05-2009, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by ruletherock

I thought you were saving your energy, and planning on getting rear-ended, tomorrow?

I am, but I can usually slip in a few chair runs on my el-cheapo Brighton pass before work without the wife figuring out I'm going skiing

**MultiVerse** · 03-05-2009, 05:39 PM

Last minute change of plans, meant BCC instead of LCC and it was actually busy (quite a few cars on the pullouts) for a weekday; saw two dudes touring with BROs, for example. Great new snow, maybe not hero pow, but plenty deep, and bluebird up until about 2:30-3:00 and then it started to snow again fairly hard up high.

LCC on the other hand had clouds rolling through from about noon on and looked like it was getting lots of fresh pow…or, at least, from what you could see from the Fantasy Ridge cliffs / Silver Fork vantage point.

**madturtle** · 03-05-2009, 06:37 PM

Hooked up w/ SFB to ski Kessler today, ^^^we coulda been the 2 dudes you saw on BROS. I thought the skiing was damn good, but I live in CA. Could definately still feel the old crust more often than not but plenty deep for face shots and good times. Didn't note much in the lines of slabs at all but up high a few small sluffs ran a little ways on steeper shots.

SFB and buddies THANKS for the tour!!! Hopefully we'll catch back up again before we head home.

**smuggs** · 03-05-2009, 06:42 PM

nice line that is

**skifishbum** · 03-05-2009, 09:18 PM

Damn glad to meet you and the Mrs.
Damn glad winters back
Toph

Mrs. MT

Looking like face shots to me

Looking like smiles were had

Them tele guys always got those skis going one way or another

Hoping for an other winter blast fri and a good tour sat will call.
Anybody want to dp tlp patsey Wolvie in the am?
Edit Snow was actually bonded fairly well to the west desert dirt encrusted bed surface on those N and E aspects a few mankier crusted patches in lower gullies of get out.

**Xover** · 03-05-2009, 11:50 PM

i will go ahead and add my "armchair $0.02".
i don't know how it was earlier this morn, but it sure as hell wasn't "moderate with pockets of considerable" later in the day ..... i fully recognize any expert(s) is human, so not trying to dis any from the UAC; but the snowpack had definitely (as SFB alluded to) stabilized/calmed down by mid-afternoon - most likely due to the time of year it is, the sun, the clouds, the amount of snow, etc.

anywho, winds at the end of the day were from primarily the west at approximately 10-20 mph and creating very, very, very soft windskins in very, very open terrain (i.e. no slabs, no hazards), but above about 10k, east facing cornices were growing - watch out for them over the next few days.

skiing wise, twas good; but could still feel whatever was underneath on only the slowest of turns.

enjoy; temps are cold, skies are clear, winds are light and the shit will be all up in your grilll

p.s. Grizz and Otter, you two cats missed super, sicko, bright orange (like Syracuse Orange) light tonight for an extended amount of time

wish you could've been there ....

**madturtle** · 03-06-2009, 11:02 PM

more fun was had today in the wasatch mtns...mrs MT and I had hoped to ski superior but the visi went to shit so we "settled" for pow on flagstaff. All aspectes were skiing pretty well but N and E were obviously the best snow. I'll bet we got all of the 4" predicted this afternoon and winds were pretty mellow. Looked like it was clearing around 6 so not sure any more precip will fall tonight. Noted a few minor cornice failures w/o consequence, still no real cohesion of slabs.

**MultiVerse** · 03-07-2009, 12:37 AM

Had some business in Park City and brought the skis up based on the possibility of a ridgeline tour:

Which meant chasing the Lhasa Dragon for a late 2:00 PM Start:

And conditions were gray with light snow but otherwise spectacular:

The tree skiing was so good that one lap led to another and another:

And then with fading light, somehow, ended up in the wrong drainage; which led to turning around at the BCC road and skinning back up the ridgeline, and down into park city, for a 9:00 PM return to the car.

While there was light snow throughout the day, when darkness fell, the sky cleared up and there was some obscured moonlight to supplement the headlamp. No new snow coming down on the drive home through Parleys.

**the vor** · 03-07-2009, 08:03 PM

East facing slope cut produced small sluff and then great turns, couldn't feel bottom.

West facing pit showed stable snow that broke at crust after repeated hard hits. Could feel bottom on west facing but still good turns.

Good times in the wasatch right now. Waiting with anticipation for next storm, looks like it's coming together pretty well.

**RTR** · 03-07-2009, 09:04 PM

No significant activity, other than skier-induced sluffing. Saw some decent-sized naturals around the Alexander Basin periphery. Some light snow around noon, and plenty of sunshine. It was great to get out with some new people, today. Mr. and Mrs. madturtle, from Fulsom, Ca... Tri-Ungulate, sfotex, Mr. and Mrs. skifishbum, myself, and a guy named Nick did some canyon-hopping, today.

It started like this...

And continued like this... (Mrs. skifishbum)

And the adventure, sans skins, commenced like this (might as well have been a California/Utah/Idaho mini-summit; they were all great company)...

Tri-Ungulate... going to heaven, or some other wonderful place.

How many knew that skifishbum was a closet jibber? (For added effect, note the helmet-cam)... Here he is shown dropping a steepy-steepy-gnar-gnar cornice...

After more good snow and slogging, we were ready to drop into the following... (here, madturtle readies himself for maybe 2500 ft. of vertical to the car.)

Everyone was getting some... skifishbum...

madturtle...

sfotex... (nice color-scheme outfit-matching, by the way)

Mrs. skifishbum...

Thanks to all of the true locals for showing us around.

**marauders** · 03-07-2009, 10:54 PM

Some more exploration out west in the Oquirrhs. About 4-6 inches of new snow, much of which was wind-affected. Some sensitive wind slabs on upper E and SE, but the slabs were small and manageable. No other instabilities to be found. Overall conditions were dust on crust, but the crust had just enough grip to keep the turns fun. Enough powder pockets found to bring a smile to our faces.

**nieveparasiempre** · 03-08-2009, 03:15 PM

Skied the Hallway and Reed & Benson Couloirs yesterday. The Hallway had 10" of fresh with a very soft bottom. The bottom in Reed & Benson was much more tangible but a great line none-the-less.

Storm snow seemed to be bonding well on North facing and/or protected aspects. The storm snow seemed willing to shear off everything else that had been hit by the sun pre-storm.

Skiing back out Cardiff Pass to LCC was survival skiing at best at the end of the day.

Full TR Here: http://skijeffcampbell.com/hallway-a...enson-couloirs

**mph** · 03-08-2009, 05:10 PM

Went up Argenta and skied God's Lawnmower. The game was on today! Great temps and great snow...North aspects held amazing snow. Even the the sun soaked snow was soft and creamy. The winds were picking up from the Southwest as we came down off the ridge around noon. 2-3 inch slabs were breaking off of any snow that got wind hammered. Nothing too major...Simple little releases.

**zion zig zag** · 03-08-2009, 08:22 PM

High north and east was great today. A few stiff windslabs at the top of east facing ridges were easily kicked and didn't entrain much snow. Lots of wind up top, warm down low. But the skiing was really surprising.

**sfotex** · 03-08-2009, 09:41 PM

Skied lower days fork and it was excellent. Found nice powder, no significant sluffing or crust was found...

**skifishbum** · 03-08-2009, 09:49 PM

My pics from Sat. in Millcreek
Sfotex

TriU

RTR

MT

Good turns
Good terrain
Good peeps

**Tri-Ungulate** · 03-09-2009, 12:04 AM

Mrs. madturtle

skifishbum

**djc** · 03-09-2009, 05:45 AM

Skied low elevation stuff off the N. Ogden Divide yesterday. No action shots but here is a pic of the line. Silky smooth supportable crust with very manageable wind sluffs - no more then 3 inches deep.

Should be interesting after all the snow today.

**Skidog** · 03-09-2009, 10:07 AM

Went out to the Birthdays yesterday. Skied the "first" most NW facing birthday chute. 2nd skier in 3rd turn set off a wind slab and got taken for a ride.

http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/photos...teenkiste.web/

everyone was ok. little "wake up" call.

Otherwise the skiing was great...soft, deep and tasty...

**Johnny Deep** · 03-09-2009, 10:22 AM

Was up in MayBird yesterday. Instability galore. Wind slabs were all cracking. With the addition of 2' of new tonight and tomorrow, I'd keep me eyeballs peeled.

**RTR** · 03-09-2009, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by Skidog

Went out to the Birthdays yesterday. Skied the "first" most NW facing birthday chute. 2nd skier in 3rd turn set off a wind slab and got taken for a ride.

http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/photos...teenkiste.web/

everyone was ok. little "wake up" call.

Otherwise the skiing was great...soft, deep and tasty...

The site says: "Skiers who leave ski resorts to venture into the backcountry only occasionally are at greater risk of triggering avalanches as they are often not as versed at assessing backcountry snowpack conditions."

Interesting. Glad to hear everyone was alright. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the snowpack the next couple of days. Be safe out there.

**Skidog** · 03-09-2009, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by ruletherock

The site says: "Skiers who leave ski resorts to venture into the backcountry only occasionally are at greater risk of triggering avalanches as they are often not as versed at assessing backcountry snowpack conditions."

Interesting. Glad to hear everyone was alright. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the snowpack the next couple of days. Be safe out there.

Yeah I was a little miffed at that generalization. We are all pretty versed in the BC, not experts by any means, but know enough.

Was a scary situation that turned out ok....the spot that slid was certainly more N facing than the rest of the chute, but by no means gave us huge concern, guess we were wrong.

It will be interesting to see what the new snow does.

As mentioned BE SAFE OUT THERE!!!!!!

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