Wasatch Conditions 09-10

[ectreeskier11]

wow ectree, thanks for the obviously painful insight. typing that must have been brutal. glad you are ok. speedy recovery!

typing that fucking hurt, both physically and thinking back over the accident. the recent uac scotties obs scares me even more, and makes me pretty convinced this was a heating issue. be careful with those same issues tomorrow, looks to be a hot one. the flipside is i will no longer feel lazy while drinking beers and taking in the SB comp. hopefully back skiing in a couple weeks. ouch, lortab and beers=nice combo.

[powdork]

so is there gonna be helmet cam footage?

[TeleThor]

Damn Nate! Glad you're ok. I can't imagine having to ski back out with both shoulders still out. A few years back I dislocated one of my shoulders and I got 100 feet down a groomer before deciding the pain was too much and that I'd try to put it back in right there. When you can start moving your arms decently again, I would suggest getting started on some shoulder exercises. After my injury, I continued to dislocate it doing all sorts of things (skiing, bball, even soccer) for the next 12 months or so until I strengthened it up. I got really good at popping it back in myself though.

Anyone know how warm it ended up getting during the afternoon? Guess I could check the wx charts... On our way down the canyon around 10:30 AM a group was just getting started at the bottom of the Y. We were thinking that they better keep a diligent eye on the temps since the sun was already cooking pretty good.

Edit: Based on the 48-hour charts, it actually doesn't look like it got too warm. Not seeing any weather stations that broke 30 degrees F. But if the sun was out, who knows. Quick recovery Nate! Don't get hooked on the drugs!

[ectreeskier11]

felt very warm and snow was at least a little manky on all aspects. that's actually the 5th time and second this season my left has com out, never done the right though. i have never been able to get it back in despite trying.unfortunately i wasn't wearing the cam, would have been a cool thing to have (in an informative sense).

[The Gnarwhale]

Wow, I'm glad you skied away. With both shoulders out that's mighty impressive too.

[whapworth]

sounded like quite an event from conversation last night. really sorry that that was the end to our glorious day. Tremendous effort getting out of WP without arms...that exit can be taxing even with poles.

obviously the motto goes "get back on the horse", and i have not doubt you will. In considering the many variables i think this really just boils down to the calculated risk we all take when heading into the BC. Easily can talk about all the factors that needed to be considered, but i don't think there should be any feelings of guilt or under-preparedness or in-experience; by most standards yesterday was a pretty greenlight day and it could have been anyone, especially given the stubborness of the slab. Not as though you were the beacon-less/pack-less/skin-less/partner-less/brain-less fellow on Wolvy the other day...

i hope the arm heals quickly and we get back out soon. if it's any consolation, i and i'm sure many others on here with far more experience, have also tango-ed with the Great White Magician. Ullr buried me last winter up to my chest in the San Juans...incredibly humbling agreed.

lemme know if i can help with anything, like busting your balls with some shoulder PT.

cheers

[powdork]

felt very warm and snow was at least a little manky on all aspects. that's actually the 5th time and second this season my left has com out, never done the right though. i have never been able to get it back in despite trying.unfortunately i wasn't wearing the cam, would have been a cool thing to have (in an informative sense).

good news 4 you. mine used to come out all the time, then, at about 38, it stopped, and hasn't since. Folks tell me it's the one benefit of getting less limber as you age.
so at least you got that going for you.

i'm pretty sure your helmet cam will protect you from avalanches, so you should always wear it.

[skiski]

Ouch. Dislocated shoulders suck. There are exercises you can do to make them less likely. Those exercises work, in my experience. But it is hard to keep them up. One is a pull down motion that is similar to poling along on flats. Since I don't always keep up my exercises, I do make an effort to pole aggresively through flat areas. Can't hurt.

Otherwise, that's a scary close call. Sounds like you have a good idea of what you are doing, but I've found that incidents like that (And getting older in general) have helped me to redraw the line of "acceptable risk" a little closer to the safe side of things.

[ectreeskier11]

looking at the forecast this morning i suspect that the cold temperatures + winds from yesterday morning with the temperatures rising around 20 degrees when i set the slide off played a major role. since the altitude was somewhere in the upper 9,000 range on a n aspect, i don't see BSH as being the weak layer, but probably some of the near surface facets that became more active with the warming (i feel warming was probably a major player, since the snow was becoming a bit damp even on this N aspect, and was very baked an heavy on all other aspects in the area). talked to tremper on the phone this morning, he added my original post to the report and said some guys were going up to take a look today. thanks for the kind words everyone, plan on rehabbing hard and being back at the bird within a couple weeks at most, though it might be the end of hucking season for me this year (we'll see). have fun, be safe.

[DeeAre]

^gnarly day man. Glad you're alive & in one piece.

[zion zig zag]

Glad you're alright, really lucky break it sounds like. I've had a hard time wrapping my head around skiing anything steep (in this case, 35 degrees or so) all year. Even with pits giving me indications things may have been stable, I just haven't had the trust. I'm sure my touring partners are starting to think I'm a puss but oh well. I skied the chute below the obelisk this week and was uneasy until I was well on the apron. Weird year.

[skatha]

Ouch! It was all I could do to crawl out of the trees to get to where ski patrol could get me when I dislocated 1 shoulder. I tore my ant. capsule and labrum and no exercise could keep my shoulder in place. When I dislocated it reaching around the passenger seat in my car to put drinks on the backseat floorboard, it was time to get it fixed.....So, do get them looked at...

[GoEhuge]

Damn dude... glad you are okay. Hope you have a quick recovery and can get back out there soon.

[Rudyj2]

Glad you are relatively OK. Sounds scary.

No one should underestimate the effects that a warm up like that can have on the snowpack, especially with a persistent weakness. The only sort of major(made the news) avalanche incident I have had involved a 10 degree warmup in less than 1 hour on a day rated Moderate for persistent weakness.

[ZachClanton]

Wow ectree! thats so sketchy and with it being in the 9k range and somewhat sheltered, the BSH factor seems like it might be questionable. maybe some were deposited into that pocket? I'm pretty fresh off the debris pile myself and know how humbling it can be. deathly scared of those wet slides and daytime temps, I don't mind sacrificing sleep to dawn patrol. happy to hear your alright man!




Hit this one nice and early today. 11,000 feet stayed cool and there were no instabilities noted.

[FreakofSnow]

Hit this one nice and early today. 11,000 feet stayed cool and there were no instabilities noted.

I'm just here to say I am severely jealous. Carry on.

[ectreeskier11]

that's so sick, what peak is it if you don't mind?

[alto]

Daaaaamn!

[Christopher3000]

^^^Saw those tracks from the top of the maybird headwall. You don't see such smooth turns right of the top of that pitch too often. Very jealous.

[tone capone]

Gorgeous, Beautiful. So jealous right now. Wish I could throw my signature up there.

[PROVO]

Skied the Needle the other day with Gnarwhale and Tyfalk. It was all time. Lots of sluffing in the chute, endless powder down the apron. Thanks again boys!

[ame="http://vimeo.com/10113164"]Hypodermic Needle on Vimeo[/ame]

http://ianprovo.blogspot.com/2010/03...ic-needle.html

[Mark H]

^^^nice job on the needle. Zach and I attempted it last week but got shut down by that freak southeast wind event.

I'll add some of my pics from Box Elder...

Someone had already broken trail towards the shotgun so we thought the Super Couloir was already tracked. Then we turned the corner and beheld it untouched.


On up the ridge. Psyche is building......


gotta watch out for these


ze top!


Oh yes. I love being the guinea pig that goes down first. (well sort of)


2nd man down. 2 more to go.


Zach. Killing it.


Bryce doin some tele turns



Gotta love Utah where you can ski a big line in the morning and still get to work/school in the afternoon. Love it.

[Mark H]

the mountain struck back (sorry it's extra blurry)


*note* The snow felt VERY hollow at the top of #2. We got a small 18" slab of the most recent snow to pop out but it was the hollow feeling near the ground that really spooked us. However, the layering in the other smaller chutes felt fine.

[smuggs]

Skied the Needle the other day with Gnarwhale and Tyfalk. It was all time. Lots of sluffing in the chute, endless powder down the apron. Thanks again boys!

Hypodermic Needle on Vimeo

http://ianprovo.blogspot.com/2010/03...ic-needle.html

so awesome provo, skied that thing with like a 60 inch base and needless to say it didnt ski like that. i saw that photo of gnarwhales and was hoping wed get the video soon.

[TeleThor]

Hit up Lake Peak's SE couloir today. W-facing approach from Red Pine was crusted and windswept. Couloir had a bunch of fresh over a hard surface. Terrible bonding meant quite a bit of sluffing at the top. It was fun though. Except for the wind. The wind was nasty on the the top of the peak and at the entrance to the line. Further down in mid elevation WP we found fantastic snow. 8-16" deep probably. Got a couple of 4-10" deep fractures in the top later to go on some rollovers on the way out, but the were only ~20 feet wide by 30 feet long.