2011/2012 Canadian Rockies Roll Call and StokeThread...

[Westslope]

[QUOTE=Oarhead;3447648]

Heard rumors that people were heading out to west bowl. Talk about russian roulette.

Never ceases to amaze...

Cornice bowl ripped out naturally this week. Spread into ER5 and took the whole damn slope to rock. Ran out to hells kitchen trees. Rocket has never seen that happen in 23 years of working avy crew.

WOW... Wonder what time of day that happened. Would have been a bit arse clenching to be on Pika watching that come down.

ER7 ripped to ground naturally. It ran to the lake. 2/3 shoulder and ER3 ripped out to ground and ran most of the distance. Swedes, Bankhead etc, same thing.

Lousy hoar at the bottom. Not too unexpected.

GONDY & PTARMIGAN: running. Lots of good skiing in the trees although today had a ton of people so that is that most likely. Ptarmigan trees were killer yesterday morning.

Noted.

Hows coverage on the frontside i.e. Overshoots, Shootout etc. ? Outer limits skiable? (without irrepairable base damage).

Thanks for the synopsis!

[theshredder]

Thanks for the info elderado. My dad was talking about buying one of those condos and he keeps going on about how he's really glad he didn't now. But snowmobile access for the condo owners... at least they got something out of it.

You've got your sled, 3 neighbors, and an abandoned ski hill. I can't even start on how rad that would be.

[repete]

Hhmmmm this might work out ok.
I might actually be able to keep up with you now

I think I could still dust you for the first couple turns, I'll just take a siesta for the remainder of the run. Looking outside and on the webcams, nothing coming down yet.

[time2clmb]

I think I could still dust you for the first couple turns,

LMAO... the Pete-enator.

[Singel]

[QUOTE=Westslope;3447690]

Hows coverage on the frontside i.e. Overshoots, Shootout etc. ? Outer limits skiable? (without irrepairable base damage).

Upshoots and area was pretty decent (especially in the trees). The area even further to skier's left with all the rocks wasn't open yet.

I don't think you could hit a rock if you tried on Outer Limits, but it was completely wind fucked on Friday afternoon.


I noticed they had an internal avalanche info sheet posted on their bulletin boards (next to the day's CAC posting). Had a ton of useful info in terms of what good terrain is open and what isn't, and what the plan for the day is in terms of opening stuff. Anyone ever seen a link for this online?

[Eldo]

.. But snowmobile access for the condo owners... at least they got something out of it.

You've got your sled, 3 neighbors, and an abandoned ski hill. I can't even start on how rad that would be.

Condo owners sold out a long time ago. The province made it a requirement of one of the recent (failed) owners of Fortress that they buy the condos, which the owners were desperate to sell.

The condos are probably not fit for occupancy anymore. Alberta Health kicked out Fortress "staff" who were living there years ago due to lack of proper water and sewage systems.

Is this Fortress stuff all news to you? It's been covered ad naseum in threads here and on BL. Search if you are looking for a dead horse to beat.

Oh, about the Snow Ridge thing, didn't you wonder why the door handles to the Fortress daylodge said Snow Ridge on them?

[Eldo]

I noticed they had an internal avalanche info sheet posted on their bulletin boards (next to the day's CAC posting). Had a ton of useful info in terms of what good terrain is open and what isn't, and what the plan for the day is in terms of opening stuff. Anyone ever seen a link for this online?

No, it's never online, but is always the first thing to check when getting to the hill on a powder day.

[Singel]

^Good to know - I never really noticed those boards before.

Slightly off topic, but can anyone recommend a nice evening xc ski somewhere near Canmore (within 30 mins drive or so)? GF is working in the hospital from 4-10 so I've got some time to kill. Definitely doesn't need to be trackset or anything, but want to make sure it's obvious enough that I don't get lost or something.

[Shadam]

ha ha ...

Now to stalk my next lurker ...

Sackscratcher ...

you know who you are ...

where is last seasons edit ???

weak dude ...

weak ...

[goldenshowers]

The Mrs. and I went up KH yesterday. Some big shit has ripped on Terminator (right down to the ground) and a few other spots. There's a crust on the hill and it rained up to the bear enclosure. Definitely more snow this year than last at this time.

The Mrs.


Coming down Porcupine.

[TOLOCOMan]

Slightly off topic, but can anyone recommend a nice evening xc ski somewhere near Canmore (within 30 mins drive or so)? GF is working in the hospital from 4-10 so I've got some time to kill. Definitely doesn't need to be trackset or anything, but want to make sure it's obvious enough that I don't get lost or something.

Within 30 minutes right now you are basically looking at the Nordic Centre. Lake Louise is in really good shape, Cascade Fire road has been packed, but not track set, some trails near Ribbon Creek have been packed, Elk Pass has been trackset. All of those besides Lake Louise and the CNC also still have some rock showing, so given the hours you are looking to ski (ie the dark) might want to skip those. Any non packed trail within a half hour of Canmore would not have enough coverage to keep you off the rocks. Of course all that could change today if we get the amounts of snow they are saying are possible. Might also depend on how much rain....

[time2clmb]

Originally Posted by Singel
I noticed they had an internal avalanche info sheet posted on their bulletin boards (next to the day's CAC posting). Had a ton of useful info in terms of what good terrain is open and what isn't, and what the plan for the day is in terms of opening stuff. Anyone ever seen a link for this online?

Which hill would this be? Always good to have this info when heading for laps.

ha ha ...

Now to stalk my next lurker ...

Sackscratcher ...

you know who you are ...

where is last seasons edit ???

weak dude ...

weak ...
what the plan for the day is in terms of opening stuff. Anyone ever seen a link for this online?

Buttscratcher....paging Buttscratcher. He's going to be in the gondy line with me on Friday. See you there WOOOOOOOT

[Eldo]

LL.

Check by the snow report and avy conditions posted on bulletin boards in the day lodges. Last season there was one just inside the automatic sliding doors on the ground level entrance to Whisky Jack.

[time2clmb]

Does anyone have any idea if you can access the history of particular weather stations that show on the avy site?? The data only goes back about 7hrs. I hate having to click around to find the info, not liking that it's not all in one spot on the new and "improved" site so far. Aaaanyways, if I can't find a way to get previous hx I might just start cutting and pasting each day to excel. Looking for beyond 24hrs back.

Paging the weather info pro F2F to the weather station courtesy phone.

[himavan]

Marmot basin was fun yesterday. They opened up the upper mountain. Had third chair on the quad and first on the new paradise lift (other than the 2 patrollers in front of me). Snow was a little dense from wind but nice in protected areas. And face shots were had. Pretty impressive for nov. especially in jasper. I also kept up my tradition of getting at least one core shot every early season at MB. Or maybe my bases are made of playdoh.
I was about to take off in the afternoon (legs were shot) when they opened up eagle ridge. Nice to close out the day with fresh tracks. Looks like there were some avalanches on the knob, so it probably wont open for a while.

[Shadam]

gee, this thread is turning into one big happy family.
we have many new faces popping in,
and soon Big Mike will be in fernie.
does anyone else have a warm fuzzy feeling?

or do you just want cold feet?

[f2f]

t2c, yes, it's possible but requires a bit of work. here's the historical data info page:
http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc..../canada_e.html

you'll notice that the selection is limited -- only major cities, but if you click on 'banff' in alberta you get the URL for the day, and by editing that URL you can see all past data that is collected. you just need to plug in the station id and the date. note that daily averages are kept longer than hourly data. the example here is for nakiska ridgetop, 2010 nov 24:

http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc....onth=11&Day=24

you can figure out the station IDs from the source code for the weatheroffice weather page for that station.

in other news, this shit is, actually, scary. picture from my terrace. it's still not over.

[mntlion]

sounds like reve closed today due to winds, +3 in banff, light winds. freezing level was at goats eye base at 11am, maybe getting higher. and huge winds in K country again....

and the avi hazzard will be thru the roof soon...

[mntlion]

http://lakelouiselowdown.wordpress.com/

more info on the inbounds LL slide..

[Eldo]

Whoa, F2f, that looks like a near miss on your building.

I heard the cops blocked off roads into the Calgary downtown core because window glass was falling out of several office towers.

Peak gust at CIA was 91 km/h, but 143 at Claresholm and 199 at Nakiska weather station.

Avy danger has got to be extreme by now.

[f2f]

Whoa, F2f, that looks like a near miss on your building.

it scraped the building and did a pretty big "thud". neighbour's terrace was covered with branches from the adjacent tree to the right, of which almost nothing remains.

[Mex]

Sentinel, nice pics of the pass.

Was at the Lake on Saturday with Mrs. Mex. Hooked up with FatMike and Mrs. FatMike. It was busy. I'd give the same report Oarhead gave earlier in this thread.

On my way down to larch on the groomer from Paradise chair I got clipped by a snowboarder. He hit the tail of my skis and went down, then gave me the stare down as I looked back. If you hit my tails, guess who's downhill?

The end of the day making our way down from the gondola was pretty ridiculous. Newbies, Gnar-tacular shredders and average joes all looking for some room to make some turns on the same white ribbon. Some people decided to walk down as it was getting sketchy as some people were straightlining through the masses. The scariest part of the day. Reminds me why I prefer hanging out in the backcountry. With the World Cup over with the end of day gong show should be alleviated a bit.

[Westslope]

light winds.

Phew!

Heading to Louise tomorrow, With the shitshow in Calgary today I was starting to worry I would get there and all the snow would be gone...

Wouldn't want to have driven to the mountains today, would have taken a tank of gas to get to Canmore with the 150kph+ headwind!

First turns of the year WOO!

[mntlion]

20cm came down today at SSV, and expection 10 overnight. I might have to go up and see what all this rain in town did.

[CSG]

f2f

At least you don't have to worry about getting yourself a tree. (Poached mine in the foothills today. After Friday's poke around and given the weather, I wasn't feeling it for a tour.)