Baker

[fiddler]

It was good up there today, but inbounds was tracked out pretty early. I didn't get there early though. Got stuck about 8 cars behind a nasty head-on collision that blocked the road for close to two hours. Looked like a car heading east hit ice and slid into a pick-up. A Suby behind them then hit the car and went off the road. It took a long time to cut the two passengers out of what was left of that car including cutting the roof off. Guy from the truck went into the ditch and his airbag saved him. Snowboarders in the Suby were shook up but I don't think they were seriously injured. Heard there was also a head-on accident last night near Maple Falls caused by black ice too.
Drive safely tomorrow morning, watch for that black ice and especially for clueless drivers following too close.

[BakerBunny]

The 34" of new snow was well bonded to the drought crust, thanks to a 14 degree nightime temperature. This new pack was too much trailbreaking for distant lines, so we picked the low hanging fruit -- Blueberry Chutes, Table Nose, Bagley Peak. On all aspects we were getting minor slough at about 42 degrees and obnoxious slough with local propegation at about 45 degrees. On the two slopes over 45 degrees that we hit (`50 degrees), the new snowpack slid down to the drought crust, necessitating some unaesthetic bunny hops to get down to where the slope eased off to where it would hold snow (42-45 degrees).
Skier's left of the Nose on Table and Little Alaska were loaded with a wind slab and avoided. On Bagley, at the end of the day, we were finding a few patches of solar/thermal/wind crust on easterly aspects.All in all, a spectacular day with temps in the 20's and sunshine all day.

[Dug]

That sounds pretty nasty. Glad no one ate it.

Thanks for the warning on the ice!

[jdabasin]

solar/thermal/wind crust.

so which is it?

[BakerBunny]

so which is it?

Couldn't tell - that why I used the amalgam. skiing down a slope you would just hit a crusty patch without changing aspect. They were just there, lurking. We couldn't tell if they were moving or not!
I suspect that local wind currents were a major factor, since wind is more locally variable than temperature or sun exposure.

[postman22]

how much are they expecting for sunday?

says the freezing level is supposed to be 3500 feeet. is that cement snow or low enough to be somewhat cold. i see that pan dome is at 4500 feet.

worth driving from van?

[rbtree]

http://www.nwac.us/products/OSOMTB

Hey postman, it should be good tomorrow, go to Baker....as you can see from that link, it has already snowed 7 inches! I just got back from another epic day at Alpental, shooting JD Thompson and crew. It snowed lightly from 11 on, but only accumulated 1/2 inch. It's slowly warming, as you'll see from that link. Save it; it updates hourly.

Small world. Today, the fellas you guys met on a Pemberton tour, Andy and Mike Traslin, came first and fourth in the Alpental Randonee Rally. I may go touring with them and another friend, tomorrow. They paid compliments to you guys and your radical skiing....but did express having a tad bit of trepidation at first.

Did you guys end up serving the full month sentence?

Any word on Richard's progress?