Wasatch Conditions 09-10

[Poop~Ghost]

I'll warn Miguel that you're on the way.

Tell him he gets to choose the condom color. Red's a good color because it hides the blood.

[grskier]

We're looking to take a quick trip out Friday night -> Sunday afternoon.

Anyone want to show us around?
Thinking we'll stay in Midvale or Cottonwood Heights. Want to get 1 Alta day in but will go elsewhere if there is someone to show us around or to follow the deepter.....

Any suggestions on a best western or a super 8 close to the canyons?

[telehacker]

close and cheap with the super pass www.super8saltlake.com

[criscam]

just got back in town. anyonne dp'ing tomorrow?

[zion zig zag]

just got back in town. anyonne dp'ing tomorrow?

I'm dp'ing the fuck out of the Cath lab.

[criscam]

I'm dp'ing the fuck out of the Cath lab.

stop being a nerd. i'll have you back in ogden by 10.

[grskier]

Super pass looks like it starts at 3 days minimum, we'll only get to ski 2...

super 8 looks like a great location

[TeleThor]

Nice morning to be out. 10 cars at Butler when I drove past at 6 AM. Jeebus! Spruces not so bad.

N-NW open shots near the ridgelines were getting wind hammered and the snow was a little slabby as a result. Some small cracks in the surface layer (top 2 inches) in those wind jacked locations. I'd be careful on steep open terrain. NW and W trees out of the wind skied lovely. Bottomless all around. Snowed all morning. Graupel for a while.

[Dantheman]

Found some pretty significant soft slabs on W-N aspects in Mill D this morning. Also saw a pretty good sized natural. Started on a short but steep leeward slope (N, maybe NNW), broke 2-3ft deep, 100ft wide and ran about 150ft on a mellower slope.

[Trackhead]

40+mph winds out of the SW. Relentless. If it wasn't raining in St. George, I'd be down there.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pjLb18el3I"]YouTube- Wind[/ame]

[Trackhead]

We steered wide of the chaos that is LCC/BCC and found excellent/safe conditions in yonder territory with good company.


The snow, at least here, was stable enough to allow poking out on steeper slopes up to about 38 degrees. No sloughing, cracking, whoomping, just fluff.








We saw only one old natural at 8,900ft on a NNW aspect. It was below some cliffs in rocky terrain. About 500ft wide, 2ft deep, running only a couple hundred feet to some flats.

[mph]

Skied Northeast facing shots all morning...Up to 38 degrees or so...no problems...Did feel a little collasping around rocky areas on the skin track up though(areas facing west)...Trailbreaking was a workout!!!! The ski down was unreal!!! You will need a steeper pitch to make turns down through all this snow...However, be safe out there...Bring the fatties!!!!

[ski_adk]

Dug 2 pits in Macdonald Draw yesterday and saw some nutty avy conditions. E-SE face ripped 4.5 - 6 feet deep from control work. The N-NW side of the same ridge hadn't slid yet, but the snow was on a hair trigger. We had 1 collapse where I felt like the ground dropped out an inch and got consistent Q2CT10 propagation tests that popped out about 5 feet deep, to the ground on old buried facets.

[AltaPowderDaze]

still plenty of large scary releases out there. numerous naturals and deep slabs on all aspects today in both skied and unskied slopes. stay safe.

[yemntftb]

still plenty of large scary releases out there. numerous naturals and deep slabs on all aspects today in both skied and unskied slopes. stay safe.

if the slide on superior was any indication, now is probably not the time to be heading out into the backcountry. be safe already one fatality this year.

[Dickeymotto]

From the Utah Avalanche Center:
Preliminary report of fatality in the Snowbasin backcountry, second hand from the Snowbasin Ski Patrol

The accident occurred in an out-of-bounds area north of Snowbasin Ski Area known as Hell's Canyon. A 40-year-old, local skier with a season pass was killed in an avalanche accident. It's unclear exactly how it occurred because he was skiing alone and was found by another party skiing in the area. Numerous avalanches had occurred in the area, so it was not even clear which avalanche he triggered. He was found on the snow surface, face down and appeared to have been killed by trauma.

He rode the lift at Snowbasin and headed towards No-Name with a friend, which is an open area within the ski area boundary. His friend said that they became separated right away and he did not know where he went. One of the ski patrol speculated that he may not have intended to go out of bounds but somehow ended up there, for whatever reason. He knew the area, as he was a local and used to work at Snowbasin years ago. He was not wearing a beacon, nor have any other rescue gear. It's unknown if he had consulted the backcountry avalanche advisory by the Utah Avalanche Center. There was an avalanche warning in effect for all the mountains in Utah and the avalanche danger was rated as High with pockets of Extreme.

The party that found him similarly did not have beacons or any other avalanche rescue gear. They called 911 and began CPR. Life Flight responded and picked up personnel from the Snowbasin Ski Patrol and flew in to look at the area. The party on the ground called and reported that they were discontinuing CPR because they did not get a response, so Life Flight decided that it was not worth the risk to try to land in the area or do a hoist evacuation. The Snowbasin Ski Patrol then organized a rescue and went in from the bottom and brought the victim out .

The rescue was compounded by another party that had gone into Coldwater Canyon, another out-of-bounds area north of Snowbasin, and had become lost and had triggered several avalanches. They called for help and Life Flight returned and brought them out using their hoist.

There were several recent avalanches in the Hell's Canyon area, and it was impossible to know which of the several avalanches the victim triggered. All the avalanches were 3-5 feet deep, breaking on the very weak faceted snow near the ground.



Fucking idiots

[Johnny Deep]

I lived the chaos that is LCC/BCC this weekend. FKNA!


Today I rest.

[Trackhead]

if the slide on superior was any indication, now is probably not the time to be heading out into the backcountry. be safe already one fatality this year.

Terrain and location choices make all the difference right now. The ski touring is fine right now if you exercise caution and stay conservative.

[Johnny Deep]

Terrain and location choices make all the difference right now. The ski touring is fine right now if you exercise caution and stay conservative.

X2, especially the conservative route.

[skifishbum]

Terrain and location choices make all the difference right now. The ski touring is fine right now if you exercise caution and stay conservative.

Amen you can sit home read books avy forcasts/incidents take classes but the high danger days are where you learn were you reinforce safe travel skills.
that you think less about on moderate days.
A safe cotrolled exit out highway to heaven Thanks soli patrol. A few skippers in michigan city obsevered a solo bro skiing the lower grizzly patsey marley trees.
Powder turds buzzing and flying recon
S facing hasty pits revealed 2 1/2' of snow failing moderate on thursday dense snow layer.
No tracks in w bowl no natural activity in silver or days Cardiff appeared to have naturaled large. Crowns across the way@ alta impessivly large glad everyone was okay E bowl good stability creamer slighty sun effected goodness.
Full profile pit ~9500 N facing Flanigans 7 1/2' snow depth failing ct18-20ish
q2 4' down on prestorm cycle facets
Ruescblock surpringly good 4 full jumps before failure. Test slopes and skicuts revealed no instabities. damn good day thank JAH fo a solid 12year partner to
who you feel good about being out and learning with.

[The Gnarwhale]

Went for a tour in the wasatch today. Lots of crown lines around: some wide deep and ran far down the track, others small pockets. All appeared to be from the weekend. I slashed every roll of a test slope I came across on the way down but wasnt able to get any snow moving. As many avalanches as there've been, we were noticing with trepidation the slopes that havent slid and the fat hangfire above some crown lines.

The snow's settled quite a bit from the blower pow of Sat and Sun. Ski penetration's quite a bit less than it was, but still around 12-18" where we skied. The snow's denser, blowing over one's thighs, not over one's shoulders. Below 7500' the snow was getting damp and the trees were dropping the snow off their limbs.

Few days old crown line looked to be in the 3-4' range, broke 3x wider than the photo shows

[grenalds]

Posting a day late, but got out a fair bit during/after the storm event. Made conservative choices from about 7-10k in BCC. Ended up skiing most aspects, most notably long shots coming straight west, SW and NW. Some steeper sections approached 35 deg. and perhaps a hair over around some roll overs which were avoided.

Haven't found any instability personally, but keep hearing the reports pouring in. Did find lots of snow in the face.

guess who?

it's kluh!

Plenty of sunshine and even some solace in the BCC junkshow.

Boissal

I saw Drew's curve sketch for the first time today:
http://utahavalanchecenter.org/obser..._lake_12152009
Thought it makes a good point, never considered it really, but will try to keep in mind tomorrow...

[MultiVerse]

Good to see people getting after it safely.

Flagstaff (south facing) had the typical day after the storm skinner & powder 8s on Monday with no observable signs of instability. Today too.

Elsewhere on other aspects, stating the obvious, new snow continues to repeatedly rip out on the old weak layer(s).

Also, not a backcountry obs, heh, but so much for skier compaction as the only best solution for avalanche mitigation:

(Alta slide Photo Credit: free refills)

Snowbird also saw similar huge activity—both natural and bombed—running more or less to the ground on skier compacted slopes.

[Long Duck Dong]

Extreme meadowskipping on NW facing aspects up to about 30 degrees in upper Bear Trap, BCC. No instabilities noted, and the snow is skiing quite consolidated. Fast and surfy, definitely not blower like a few days ago. Skinning back up to the ridge we skinned over a steep but safe roller and got it to compress under one skier weight. Kindof a scary woompf but not much else to note today. Snow settling very quickly.

[The Gnarwhale]

In case you missed it on the UAC page yesterday: