Wasatch 08-09 Conditions

[alto]

Totally pertinent, Teefs, and I'm not even in the state. I think NE is more accurate aspect for the last one.
Terrifying.

[Particle]

Those pics of the bird just make me sad...

[4-TEEF]

Totally pertinent, Teefs, and I'm not even in the state. I think NE is more accurate aspect for the last one.
Terrifying.

Compass directions in LCC always mess me up That slide is skier's right of Great Scott. I guess the whole Cirque pretty much faces North/NE to some extent.

I also saw a lot of activity on Baldy but I think that was more from bombing in the morning. A lot of the chutes on Baldy had crowns running vertically down the eastern most side of the chute... Patrol said it was due to wind loading.

[tele mark]

Went here on Saturday


and found reasonably stable snow here.


After digging 2 pits we decided to ski the edges cautiously,


enjoying plenty of these


lower down on the way out. Coverage still a bit thin, banged a few rocks along the way and one of our party suffered a ripped coat on the brush clogged exit.

[powstash]

I also saw a lot of activity on Baldy but I think that was more from bombing in the morning.

From the Alta side it was impressive. The east facing shot above the return road from Sugarloaf had a 8-10' crown on it. Spooky to say the least.

[Trackhead]

Went out with low expectations due to warm temps and soggy snow. Then expectations got a little lower when this happened after stomping on a mini-cornice with the heel elevator up.


Skied fun, creamy pow in Thaynes/West Porter.


No collapsing today on our north or ESE aspects. Skied north and ESE with great conditions and springy powder.


Rollerballing down low on the exit. One natural observed on the north side of Raymond. Contrast was too low to visualize the slide on Gobblers.

[Particle]

Thanks for the obs TH. How did you get out with half a binding?

[Trackhead]

Thanks for the obs TH. How did you get out with half a binding?

Lock the Dynafit toe, then used some bailing wire as a screw driver to sorta put the screws back in. Then some good 'ol back seat skiing.....finally broke again at the trail. Didn't effect the ski out really at all.

[grizzle6]

So in other words, you MacGrubered it. MACGRUBER!!!

[skifishbum]

Headed out to tlp to check out the snowpack and naturals from the last storm.

Pretty much the whole lower part of the ridge went from where the backcounrty editor got caught to Steamboat Lizzie but not 1000 turn gulley or the Patsey Marley face Kind of odd nothing on the steeper facs of Wolverine went.

Pit results on the hang fire flank of natural yeilded 5'-6' depths 5' cohesive
finger slabs failing on isolation or shovel insertion. Slightly better compression results failing on elbow blows. Slabs were failing below a dual crust layer

Ski down to the lake was enjoyable on dense windbuff

[Johnny Deep]

[Trackhead]

12-31-08

Skied the west slope of the Uintas from roughly 7,500ft to 10,400ft.
Saw two naturals. One small pocket on steep east aspect and one gigantic pulverizing monster 1/2 mile wide and many, many feet deep on a steep east aspect again at roughly 9,500ft.

Skied north aspects to about 28 degrees and west aspects a little steeper. Dug pits on southeast and north. Southeast aspects had no obvious rain crust, nor did north aspects???? at our 9,200 and 9,900ft elevations. North aspect pit shown in video.

Great skiing today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgWO4HM6ZkI#

[SPREAD EAGLE]

No Pics (camera not in pack)

Yesterday 12-31-08 Skied Gobblers SE aspect along the ridge that seperates Mill-A and Butler Fork. No activity observed or sighted.

Skinned up Butler Fork 7:30 am and then took a B-Line side hill to Top O Goblers. Some very large Death Cookies had formed after Tuesdays warming and surprised the hell out of me. Nobody was in BCC North until later so I was alone in the area. Keeping to Ridges and Trees I skied the SE Ridge and enjoyed some great Pow, wind buff, and variable re-crystalized snow that showed no propogation or cracking or anything other than a breakable top layer on some aspects that was 3-4" deep at times. Snow seamed pretty sturdy in this area.

Since I have been to Reynolds and now Gobblers I will be taking a tour up to the Raymond for more observations. The Raymond looks sweet but a little scary so snow pit beta will be coming for the Mill-A directisimo lines and then some scouting around off of the peak. Anybody game??? Thinking Saturday around 8am

[Lone Star]

12-31-08

Skied the west slope of the Uintas from roughly 7,500ft to 10,400ft.
Saw two naturals. One small pocket on steep east aspect and one gigantic pulverizing monster 1/2 mile wide and many, many feet deep on a steep east aspect again at roughly 9,500ft.

Uinta 08-0 9 Conditions thread, JONG!!!

how much snow is piled up in the areas that lack the crust?

[Trackhead]

Uinta 08-0 9 Conditions thread, JONG!!!

how much snow is piled up in the areas that lack the crust?

Roughly 3ft on our ESE aspect that we dug on and 4-6ft on north aspects at 10k.

[AltaPowderDaze]

here are a few photos from the bird. they are just quick point and shoot style, so not the quality of 4teef's.


some of the slides broke below the rain crust and some above. if you're out looking at crowns, remember what is left. those that broke above the rain crust will likely repeat if the conditions allow it.


gun towers:


baldy above the traverse. this is where the comp starts in full years.


east twin into mineral. crown from right to left--unreliable, 13 turns to fore.


titus's tea cup.





snow safety totals up the last week's avalanche count.



it's been a long week. thanks for being patient, both in the backcountry and the resorts.

[truth]

Temps were in the 40's a the top of the Needles Gondy today at 'Basin. Storm is coming in real wet. Pissing rain at 5000 ft. Graupel white out at 6500. Will the water will help the snowpack or the weight set things in motion?

[GrizzlyFD]

Did some searching outside Brighton past Dog lake out toward Catherine. WNW facing ~9600ft. Dug a pit to the ground. Column failed on isolation on the infamous facet/crust/facet layer. The new snow, I'm guessing from the last couple storms, is right side up, while below it is downright scary.



Not too experienced with the Utah snowpack, but have been keeping track here, ttips, and UAC, but this looks pretty bad. The facets layer is pretty thick, and the rain (rime?) crust. Is this pretty common throughout the central wasatch?

[skifishbum]

^^^^^
Finding that prominant rain crust in N NE facing twin lakes pass pits, with an additional melt thaw crust.
Not seeing as promiant of crust in N NW facing Silver fork. Skied bed surface ie ground and rock and > 12" off Davenport today. Both Davenport and Guild line naturaled in sections and took out the rain crust. Some of the tlp slides ran on top of the rain crust some stepped down.
TH who does your mounts? Pm me if ya need a few helicoils

[marauders]

Great day in the Provo Peak area. Skied east facing below 9,000 ft. Various snow pits and tests revealed no evidence of the infamous facet/rain crust sandwich. There was a 2" suncrust about 8" under the new snow. Tests showed a Q2 sheer of the suncrust at an average of CT17. Couldn't get it to propagate at all at different elevations on the east facing slopes. Shovel-tilt got the new snow to slide on the suncrust, but not something that alarmed us. New snow appeared to be bonding well with the suncrust. The remainder of the snowpack was well-bonded and right side up.

All in all the skiing was excellent on a beautiful day. The ride down Rock Canyon is also something to savor...pretty fun with a soft layer of powder.

[Trackhead]

Great pics Maruaders, and thanks for the obs from down yonder.

Did the N Face of Provo peak rip out?

[brutah]

^^^^beautiful pics

[marauders]

Great pics Maruaders, and thanks for the obs from down yonder.

Did the N Face of Provo peak rip out?

Ah, I should have mentioned that...we didn't see any natural activity anywhere on Provo Peak from the north through west aspects.

[climbhigh1119]

Good skiing today found in upper BCC. Lower angle slopes skied well with fast, mostly right side up snow.

[Lone Star]

beautiful pic!!!