Some quick Las Lenas pics

[FrankZappa]

Really good points in here & we'd all be highly, highly bummed if somethin' happened(s).

On a related note, many years ago, one of the first slides I was part of was in Lovelands "side country". 6 of us in the group, 5 skied the slope & the 6th & last skier hit the sweet spot & the whole hill (100 to 200 ft wide x 3-4 ft deep) came down at us all on the heels of the trigger man. We were fortunate (although the hwy dept. was prolly pissed <he-he>). Lesson learned.

Have a blast and we're waiting on pins & needles for pics/details.

[BushwackerinPA]

good stuff MBSC and keep the stoke coming

[lemon boy]

3. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that 98% of the people that venture into the backcountry on this forum would never trust some random guy they had just met to save their life in a high risk situation.

BTW- I think while we'd like to think this is the case...it isn't.

[Squirrel99]

iskibc has some great points. - but let's stop the internet quarterbacking. it's something that's come up in other threads, too. you shouldn't have to justify everything in your own trip report. none of us were there & it's always easier to judge from a far. it's always up to you to exercise caution & good judgement. this is a stoke thread, not a debate.



bring back some more pics, please!

[Spats]

Spats, I was merely pointing out a heuristic trap in your original advice. Go/nogo is a decision outside of if somebody's skied that yesterday/today/10mins ago.

Point taken. It probably sounded like I was saying "but being third would have been no problem", which I didn't intend.

I actually backed off of a line in Entre Rios while I was there. Squirrel99 and I were skinning up the approach to the base and scoping lines, and I noticed a really cool twisty rock chute on looker's right. I distinctly remember saying something like "That's a great-looking line and I want it, but if you sloughed yourself out, you'd have some problems...I don't feel good about trying that today." So we skied the face instead.

We found out later that day that a guy sloughed himself out in there and broke his arm, probably around the same time we skied the face.

Edit to attach some Lenas stoke from a couple years ago. A Squirrel99 considers the Banana:

[leroy jenkins]

FKNA!


Finally someone in LL posts some pics (besides enlosandes).

Winter is closer every day, and I will be in Argentina next season.

[summit]

I think iskibc's comments are valid.

And stoke bump.

[pointedem]

valid, sure.

she is there.
she made the call.
The call was right on- did not slide.

sweet pics!

[lemon boy]

heh- There's now a whole thread to MMQB MBSC's descision making process so we can get pure unadulterated stoke here.

MBSC-
1. Your silence had better mean you're feverishly pounding Quilmes and putting together today's megablog.
2. The only reason anybody questions the avy stuff is cause we "care" which you should read as "selfishly want more content from one of the best content providers on here"

[Squirrel99]

Covert- thanks for starting the other thread.

To clarify- I completely agree with iskibc's comments. Just would rather discuss in another thread as opposed to the original 'stoke' that's been provided here. no ill will meant

rock on lenas people, how about some more pics??? I'll say please.....

[enlosandes]

Well, I would not have skied a run over exposure on a day with three feet of new on top of a perfect bed surface with other similar slopes moving but then again, look what my ski cut produced 2 chutes over.

Talking to MBSC yesterday, she said things were stable. I know it had been skied 2 days earlier and 2 days before that (5 of us) so it had been cleaned out. Maybe that was the difference.

[mtnbikerskierchick]

Alright, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and probably catch a lot of shit, but fuck it, I'm just looking out for the safety of a friend.....


First of all, great pics, nice stoke, happy for ya for getting the goods. Very nice.

Now for my concern.

1. What were you thinking when you dropped into an avalanche prone zone without knowing the history of the snowpack in that area? There had been recent avalanche activity on similar slopes, which seemed to be ignored. The lift had been closed for a month, this was your first day out in a different country, completely different snowpack, and unfamiliar terrain.

2. Curious as to how you arrived that the terrain was safe. Dig a pit? Tests? Ski cut? Talk to patrol? etc.

3. You trusted some random guy you rode up on the lift with to save your life if you had gotten caught? I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that 98% of the people that venture into the backcountry on this forum would never trust some random guy they had just met to save their life in a high risk situation. I certainly wouldn't. Did you talk about what type of training he had? Experience level? Was he sporting avy rescue gear?

4. Did you talk about strategy in case something were to happen? Plan? Safe zones? Looking at the picture of this area, I can't find many, if at all any, safe zones along the route.


This is not meant to be an attack. Just a friend who cares and is concerned. Maybe everything was done as safely as possible and procedure was by the book. Maybe you had tested the snowpack and took all the precautionary measures.

Be safe, have fun, and ski some more pow for us northern hemi folk.

You bring up a lot of valid points, iski, for sure.

Having written my previous response pressed for time in an Internet café, I don’t think it made total sense.

To me, lemming mentality is: if you go, all will follow. To me, this refers to the great numbers of people who venture out-of-bounds here in Las Lenas that have little or no avy knowledge or even awareness. In LL, it is true that many many people seem to venture to these places without beacons, shovels, or probes, which is not a good thing at all. The people I was with were relatively knowlegable, for sure. We did discuss strategy and experience, and I felt pretty safe with them, but at the same time, I was also very much looking out for myself.

I think I should also mention that we were intending to ski a line a bit further to lookers right, probably Eduardos now that I know more about the lines. Once we realized we were not quite on the right line, we reassessed…. We had seen that 2 other people had skied it so that told us two main things:: 1) you can be relatively reassured the line goes 2) there is a HINT that the line is somewhat safe, but by HINT, that’s what I mean… the line could still be unstable and you should look for signs of that. And that is exactly what we did. We saw no signs of instability. We did talk about it, we did check out the snow, we did ski cuts (I´d done a snowpit earlier on a different part of the mtn) when we felt they were necessary in some places, jumped on it to see if we could trigger any activity…. I could go on, but you get the idea.

In looking at the line, Sin Salida is probably not the best choice to ski with fresh pow. But, like I said, we saw no signs of instability. This is why, when we got to the bottom, and we saw that Exocet had such a big slide, we were all surprised. I took this as fair warning…. A reminder…. Which is why I posted the pic of the slide in the first place.

The question I had after skiing Sin Salida, coming down to the bottom and seeing that Exocet had slid was: What made the difference? Why did Sin Salida feel so stable, but Exocet had a big slide? Well, I met up with enlosandes for dinner last night and asked him what he thought about that. He said that a few of his friends had very recently skied Sin Salida, and had done their own “control” work prior to the storm. I had mentioned earlier how much of the snow had long ago sloughed off. Well, this must be why. He also said that Exocet had not been skied prior to the storm.

[mtnbikerskierchick]

Covert- thanks for starting the other thread.

To clarify- I completely agree with iskibc's comments. Just would rather discuss in another thread as opposed to the original 'stoke' that's been provided here. no ill will meant

rock on lenas people, how about some more pics??? I'll say please.....

Pics later. I have some ready to post, but I thought it more important to respond to all of your comments first.

[enlosandes]

Another point of interest is Hhuman Error had slid by the time the opened Marte (not sure if it was hand charge or natural) and the Hammer set off Frankie's and had to self arrest. I am really glad it was stable, becuase out of all of the slopes at LL, I think Sin Salida is the most exposed.

On a side note, after yesterday's new snow and huge wind event, today it is is snowing much wetter so we are going to finish off a little top heavy. Expect to see some large natural slides when it clears. Peace out.

[lemon boy]

Naked pics later. I have some ready to post,

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mtnbikerskierchick]

I am done with Las Lenas. It hasn&#180;t worked out for me.

Thanks all for your comments. This thread has been very difficult for me to deal with, honestly. I have languished over it to no end, in tears many many many many many times

Iski, you do have valid points, but I would hope that as my most trusted BC partner you would think that I would make good decisions. If you had questioned them, I do think you should have asked me personally.

I am posting what remaining decent pics I have on another thread.

That is all.

[PulverSchwein]

[Mtn Man]

As many have stated, we all care about you B. D probably cares about you the most since you guys put in so many hours on the hill. As he probably should have PM'd or called you about it personally, I think a lot of us have learned how to assess a situation. He probably knew, deep down, that you surveyed every possible scenario before going forward with that line. But being the teacher and mentor that he is, I guess he wanted others to learn from this situation. I could tell that your response probably went through about 50 mind boggling drafts before you hit submit, and it was well thought out and complete.

Bottom line, we care about ya and I hope you don't stop the stoke because of it!

B)

[Z]

I am done with Las Lenas. It hasn´t worked out for me.

Thanks all for your comments. This thread has been very difficult for me to deal with, honestly. I have languished over it to no end, in tears many many many many many times

Iski, you do have valid points, but I would hope that as my most trusted BC partner you would think that I would make good decisions. If you had questioned them, I do think you should have asked me personally.

I am posting what remaining decent pics I have on another thread.

That is all.

Okay, this annoys me. This TGR internet avalance quarterback shit is fucking stupid. Everyone gets all holier than thou at every chance. The fact is YOU weren't there. That's all that matters.

Hey Britney, you made the right decision and got the good line. Wanna know why? Cause it DIDN'T FUCKING SLIDE. You knew the conditions, you saw what was up, and you trusted your partners. Don't ever let a thread like this get to you, it's upsetting that it apparently did.

Nice pics...

[enlosandes]

Okay, this annoys me. This TGR internet avalance quarterback shit is fucking stupid. Everyone gets all holier than thou at every chance. The fact is YOU weren't there. That's all that matters.

Hey Britney, you made the right decision and got the good line. Wanna know why? Cause it DIDN'T FUCKING SLIDE. You knew the conditions, you saw what was up, and you trusted your partners. Don't ever let a thread like this get to you, it's upsetting that it apparently did.

Nice pics...

I think that discussing things is the part of a FORUM, hence the name. And I think that there is another thread called the Anti Stoke to discuss further.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=58762

[iskibc]

I think that discussing things is the part of a FORUM, hence the name. And I think that there is another thread called the Anti Stoke to discuss further.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=58762

Exactly!!! It's a forum for discussion, in which I hope people learn something from the discussion. I don't think anyone that posted on this thread got out of hand or was trying to be an "Avalanche QB.." by any means.