2013/14 Inland PNW thread

[jono]

this will be interesting to say the least....

I was thinking the same: good time to be inbounds? Course, the pack moves downhill sometimes at the Schwiz anyway, but to my jong eyes the snow on the ground before looked like a better sliding surface than anything. I was up on the lower half of Scotchman's Peak Saturday and found a combination of big flat facets in the surface and hard, dried out crust. Improving with altitude, but from that little window and the predicted warming through this storm cycle I'm thinking about slides. Anybody else?

[GoldMember]

^^^ Umm, yeah. This will likely be the front-runner to a pretty good cycle. I would think being very cautious this weekend (in-bounds) would be a very good idea. If you do go out, there will be some heavily wind-loaded aspects and staying away from them and on shallow pitches would be a good idea. I'm staying in-bounds, myself, except for maybe a short venture out West Bowl gate on the shallow pitches.

[Shredhead]

Flying into GEG tonight. I have reservations at Red, Friday-Sunday nights with two days with BRC.
I'm planning on driving to Nelson tonight and skiing WW Friday. Does the road between Salmo and Nelson ever close?
Valhalla also has seats tomorrow and Monday. I really like WW, but will it be a shitshow tomorrow since it hasn't snowed for a while?

[GoldMember]

The road between Salmo and Nelson will/should be open. It's not high and is well maintained. If it's not open, head west on Hwy 3 to Castlegar then northeast on 3A along the river. It's a bit out of the way but shouldn't be any problem getting there. But I don't think it will be any problem, regardless.

The only issue you might have is that we're supposed to have winds up to 65 mph at 5,000' on Saturday. I've never skied WW but I've never heard of it being a shitshow so you'd probably be fine.

[Shredhead]

Thanks.

Hopefully BRC doesn't get blown down.

[GoldMember]

Today at Silver:

[Flyoverland Captive]

49n today: power out, nothing running. Pissing rain and screaming wind. Horrible.

[Cayuse]

49n today: power out, nothing running. Pissing rain and screaming wind. Horrible.

Glad o decided not to go. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using TGR Forums

[2FUNKY]

looks like no body is turning today. Fuck this warm wind! Supposed to cool down for tomorrow and snow all day with good accumulations in the mountains(anti-jinx) Bring on Monday.

[Toadman]

looks like no body is turning today. Fuck this warm wind! Supposed to cool down for tomorrow and snow all day with good accumulations in the mountains(anti-jinx) Bring on Monday.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow with cool down, and Ullr keeps the wind in his back pocket. Schweitzer was a no go today, just wondering what the warm up will mean for the snow pack after things chill this evening...

[2FUNKY]

Fingers crossed for tomorrow with cool down, and Ullr keeps the wind in his back pocket. Schweitzer was a no go today, just wondering what the warm up will mean for the snow pack after things chill this evening...

I am sitting tomorrow out. Waiting for it to stack up for a Monday banger, I will be inbounds. If you are thinking about going touring I would rethink that. No fucking way I would go unless it was way low angle in the trees. This warm up with a deep sugar layer is a full on slide waiting for the trigger man. Even side country will be suspect in my eyes.

Sweet vid. Goldmember!! Fucking pissed I missed that. Boots were in the shop getting work done, yer welcome.

[Toadman]

Strictly inbounds for me.

[Flyoverland Captive]

From a friend who hit 49 this afternoon: "Probably the worst conditions I've skied." And she skis a LOT, so that's saying something....

Gonna try tomorrow, but not expecting much.

[bourbonisgood]

From a friend who hit 49 this afternoon: "Probably the worst conditions I've skied." And she skis a LOT, so that's saying something....

Gonna try tomorrow, but not expecting much.

I made 2 laps at 49 before the power went out. Definitely not the worst, especially if you've spent any time around the I5 corridor. With that said, still very bad and came straight home to watch the Seahawks and drink beer...

[MagnificentUnicorn]

It's fucking puking at Mission Ridge with relatively cold temps. Does MR qualify as Inland PNW?

[Flyoverland Captive]

^^^yesterday was good , sounds like you got the dregs. All the rain set up hard this afternoon; solid crust on everything. The groomers may make it skiable for tomorrow, but anything ungroomed is gonna be nasty.

[brutah]

I am sitting tomorrow out. Waiting for it to stack up for a Monday banger, I will be inbounds. If you are thinking about going touring I would rethink that. No fucking way I would go unless it was way low angle in the trees. This warm up with a deep sugar layer is a full on slide waiting for the trigger man. Even side country will be suspect in my eyes.

so many armchair QBs in this thread

It's fucking puking at Mission Ridge with relatively cold temps. Does MR qualify as Inland PNW?

fuck yea mission ridge counts!

ALSO DON'T FORGET THURSDAY NIGHT, 6 PM, ARGONNE LIBRARY, MEETING TO DISCUSS AN UPHILL POLICY AT MT SPOKANE

[2FUNKY]

so many armchair QBs in this thread

Instead of being a dick, enlighten us all then, man. I dug around a bunch last Monday and there is a nasty sugar layer about 26" down in the Lookout area. Very easy to get a test slab to go with little/no pressure. Combine that with new wet heavy snow with some wind loading and possible rain and warm temps on top with no cohesion deep. Driving around today at work I noticed several small self triggered slides on very moderate terrain. Just my opinion though, do what ever you want.

[brutah]

Instead of being a dick, enlighten us all then, man. I dug around a bunch last Monday and there is a nasty sugar layer about 26" down in the Lookout area. Very easy to get a test slab to go with little/no pressure. Combine that with new wet heavy snow with some wind loading and possible rain and warm temps on top with no cohesion deep. Driving around today at work I noticed several small self triggered slides on very moderate terrain. Just my opinion though, do what ever you want.

I wasn't directing that mainly at you, just seemed like a lot of speculative avy forecastin' going down from a lot of people who i suspect don't ski past the ropes that often. sidecountry and backcountry snowpacks (think skier compaction) are often very different. plus safely skiing bc ALWAYS comes down to terrain choices dependent on snowpack stability. either way you never know till you go. plus I guess I just haven't been seeing that 'nasty' sugar layer but I've mainly been skiing E thru S aspects this winter nor I have skied up near lookout this year, but maybe I'm just thinking the snowpack looks pretty stable compared to the pure crap I was looking at in colorado a few weeks back.

PS if anyone is skiing silver today, i'll be in all green with a red helmet

[2FUNKY]

I wasn't directing that mainly at you, just seemed like a lot of speculative avy forecastin' going down from a lot of people who i suspect don't ski past the ropes that often. sidecountry and backcountry snowpacks (think skier compaction) are often very different. plus safely skiing bc ALWAYS comes down to terrain choices dependent on snowpack stability. either way you never know till you go. plus I guess I just haven't been seeing that 'nasty' sugar layer but I've mainly been skiing E thru S aspects this winter nor I have skied up near lookout this year, but maybe I'm just thinking the snowpack looks pretty stable compared to the pure crap I was looking at in colorado a few weeks back.

PS if anyone is skiing silver today, i'll be in all green with a red helmet

Cool. , I was thinking about going to Silver today but for sure tomorrow.

[2FUNKY]

From the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center:
The following conditions apply to our entire forecast region. Over the past 24 hour period 1 inch to 2 inches of snow water equivalent have fallen in the mountains. This means that heavy, wet snow is piling up over new and unsettled snow from this week. This will also seriously test the strength of the deeper weak layers in the pack that formed during the sub-zero weather we experienced in December. New snow in the past 24 hours could amount to as much as 1 foot above 5,000 feet and with strong westerly winds lee aspects could have unstable drifts as deep as 3-4 feet. Warming temperatures with this storm is also creating an inverted snowpack with lighter snow layers underneath heavier, wetter layers. The weather for Saturday and Saturday night will only add to the complex avalanche problem. Stay off steep slopes and use caution in and around avalanche terrain. This is a great weekend to stay inside and watch football, fix the plumbing, or catch up on some reading. The avalanche danger for the entire Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center forecast region is rated as HIGH on all aspects steeper than 30 degrees above 4,500 feet.

Be smart everyone.

[sparkletarte.]

Flying into GEG tonight. I have reservations at Red, Friday-Sunday nights with two days with BRC.
I'm planning on driving to Nelson tonight and skiing WW Friday. Does the road between Salmo and Nelson ever close?
Valhalla also has seats tomorrow and Monday. I really like WW, but will it be a shitshow tomorrow since it hasn't snowed for a while?

I live btw Salmo and Nelson and have never heard of the road closing, for future reference. The one that closes is btw Salmo and Creston. Hope you had fun Friday- it was a good day- and that Red panned out, tho I'm guessing Sat was heavy and maybe some wind issues? WW was super awesometime today, no lines and the best snow! I'd grab a Valhalla seat for Mon tho you're going to deal with avy issues. WW will still be good if you know were to go...

I've never skied WW but I've never heard of it being a shitshow so you'd probably be fine.

WW def has shitshow days and Saturday was one of them. Fortunately I avoided all the shit and only dealt with pow.

[2FUNKY]

Going to Silver tomorrow. Anyone else?

[brutah]

Got up to the FAA area in lookout pass today, Janurary 13. Here were my observations:

Dense wind affected new snow. Crust on surfaces below 5300'. Really windy day with winds in the morning going from E to W before changing directions around 1130 to W to E. (thought the winds traveling from the east was a little odd, which is the reason I'm noting it)

Dug a pit on a SSE facing slope at an elevation of 5960' on a ~25 degree slope. Total depth was 60-65"

First failure occurred almost immediately on an ECT 4, Q2, very little propagation through column, didn't even make it all the way past my shovel. Failure occurred 4" down from top (basically overnight snow or snow sitting on the layer that got baked during the brief warm up on saturday). Second failure was an ECT 24, Q3 about 15" down from top (basically the new storm snow that we've received over the last week).

I didn't see any signs of instability as I was skiing or skinning up, and I did stomp around above and on some test slopes to try to get snow to release, but had no luck.

There's a layer I couldn't get to react on the ECT (maybe due to low slope angle?) sitting around the 30" mark that could be an issue on steeper terrain as it was significantly less hard than the surrounding layers..... I'd rate the avalanche danger for the day at CONSIDERABLE moving to moderate, but take the rating with a grain of salt as my pit was dug on a low angle.

[kevino]

I thought the inland nw only had backcountry advisories posted once a week from areas no one skis?