EAST COAST ROLL CALL #8 14/15 A NEW HOPE

[2ski2fish4ever]

VFH,up here in the Alpine zone,still a consistant 3 ft snow pack in my yard.,can't remember when and if there was a snow pack this deep this late.At this point i might have to limit my skiing to bluebird days and 6 inchesor more of new.

[Vt-Freeheel]

I have more snow in my south facing yard today than there was the last two February's. I don't see 6" anytime soon, but there is bluebird coming.

[Bottleman]

Looking like a great day for some uphill skiing. Still gathering supplies and readying the Sherpas but Lord willing, we should summit shortly before nightfall. Still planning on being at Bromley tomorrow if you are around Peruvian. I'll be the one trying to keep up with the best skier on the mountain.

[neufox47]

One was J. Lane soooooooo.......now he had to be out and about for work but unless my memory is off he wrote the report that morning. Though I certainly agree it's a mad house up there generally.

ADK skied real well this weekend up high.

Pretty sure Greg meant that sarcastically.

[therudeness]

awesome pic Armada

[Peruvian]

I hit the corn harvest sweet spot today at a local NELSAP. I didn't even need my skins as my Charger BCs climbed right up. Flick of a switch on the NTNs and out of walk mode and another lap down. I ripped out 5 in total. I stopped by Bromley afterward, but the clouds were causing the slush and corn to set up so I bailed after a few rides on the quad.

Bottleman - shoot me a PM if you are down here tomorrow.

[FussyDutchman]

Maybe not mid-winter conditions anymore but definitely still plenty of good snow to be found up high today.

[t-the-east]

Surprise pow day at whiteface today. Probably 8-10" up top
And it's my kids school vacation!
A good time was had by all.

[SADAN]

Damn so luck I'm stuck here injured

[lynchdogger]

8-10" inches at the end of March?! Hell yes! But e or b those are the worst "pow" pics ever! Sure it was fun though!

[robrox]

Ready to drop in for run two on Sunday.


4" of creamy pow on styrofoam. Skied nice.

[2ski2fish4ever]

certainly seemed like mid winter at the Bush yesterday.though the report was only 3 inches,Castlerock and heavens gate certainly had more.Liftline and Rumble skied exceptionally well.

[robrox]

My wife's phone ran all night with seismic alerts and then it came, we we packing for Kluane NP, Yukon. Fortunately I have some friends not far from Whitehorse to help me with logisitcs as my wife runs up to Kluane to study the new volcano.
Our passports were expired, but with the University's help that has been fixed. Talk ablout a freaking nightmare, I haven't slept in 30 hours.
We will be flying out of Seattle in an hour.

Ski Yukon!

[FussyDutchman]

certainly seemed like mid winter at the Bush yesterday.though the report was only 3 inches,Castlerock and heavens gate certainly had more.Liftline and Rumble skied exceptionally well.

I guess this depends on your definition of mid-winter. Mine has been temps below 0 and bottomless so yesterday almost qualified as late spring conditions. Thought about heading down there one day last week but VTF saved me the trip with a detailed conditions report that kept me north.

Have a great trip Rob. Hopefully, all the hiccups are now out of the way.

[Bottleman]

With an ample dose of anti-anxiety medication in tow, the Bottles cautiously ventured out of the snowless Banana Belt today and oh, what a day it was. Thanks much to Peruvian for not only showing us around but proving that pinheads are not so bad after all Granted, my memory is not what it once was but today was one of the finest corn harvests I can remember. Temps never crested the freezing mark but the sun did its work (oh yes, it did work) and the snow surface was purrrrrrrrrfect. Sign me up in advance for more spring days at the Sun Mountain. Stinking gorgeous I tells ya.

[t-the-east]

Yes! Another incredible day on snow. Perfect conditions indeed.

After skiing hard til about 2, we rigged up the fly rods In the parking lot and pointed out some lines we just skied...



Followed by fishing and beers



And then we climbed back up to the truck. Overall, a damn good day

[neufox47]

After much contemplation and several drinks im ready to discuss the slide I set off in Oaks. I've been reluctant to post about this for a number of reasons. In conclusion, I basically made the "rookie" mistake of deciding an area was safe on a macro level and ignoring the evidence I found on a micro level that contradicted my initial decision.

We went up Hillmans and dropped into airplane bowl. The skiing was ok and the stability was good. At the top skiers right of airplane bowl I skied past some sastrugied wind pillows at the very top and skied some very edgeable windboard that was very nice. Further down in the bowl the skiing was on scoured old surface. While at the bottom I looked up and saw the lines to the climbers left of what I just skied. In hindsight, they looked loaded with fresh snow, that they were steeper with more east exposure to them. However, at the time I saw a fun steep and technical run with similar snow to what I skied at the top of my last run. I was hoping for firmsh but smooth snow all the way down. When I got to the top of the run I found a larger and less "sastrugied" wind pillow than what was at the top of the first run. This should have been my first no go sign. Alas I did some hasty hand and pole probing and jumped on the pillow at the top of the rollover. I could not detect any hollow or weak layers at this point. In more detail, I isolated a patch of snow using my pole down to the depth i could pole penetrate and tried to pull it down to see if it sheared cleanly, it broke into pieces rather than shear. Then I jumped several times on the pillow until I had penetrated my skis well into the slab. I observed no cracking, hollowness, or other signs of instability. I decided to make 1 turn and re-assess. What I failed to consider was that the wind pillow I was investigating was still very much exposed to low wind speeds and relatively low angle. I believe the wind pillow was stable because there was no weak layer of snow underneath it due to its relatively shallow angle and exposure to winds. At this high point the slope had not been able to accumulate the light density layer that was collapsing and triggering slides. However, below that wind pillow the snow was much different. But the softness of the wind pillow should have turned me around. It didnt.

Right before i made my move i thought, well if it does go im pretty sure it will break at my feet. Thankfully i was right about that much. I made a single short stopping jump turn and upon sinking into the snow, I watched a crack appear instaneously 100' in front of me. In the next moment the slab was hissing away from me at unbelievable speed. Panic gripped me and adrenaline raced through my veins as I watched the slope slide faster and bigger that I expected. The slide ran all the way into the trees below.

I side slipped down the avy bed until I knew I could traverse into airplane bowl. We hiked up and skied back down hillmans. I went to the rangers cabin and told my story to Jeff Lane and he told me about being caught in the slide between Lip and Sluice.

[cat in january]

Thanks for sharing Rob. I definitely got some food for thought from your experience and very glad you were not taken down to the trees.

And Robrox look forward to the trip report, that sounds wild.

[dark_star]

Wow Neufox, glad you're OK. Thanks for posting and letting others learn from you're experience.

[Peruvian]

Thanks much to Peruvian for not only showing us around but proving that pinheads are not so bad after all

Don't let that get out. We have a reputation to uphold!

Neufox - scary indeed. Glad to hear that it cracked at your feet and not above.

[gpcharles]

W

One was J. Lane soooooooo.......now he had to be out and about for work but unless my memory is off he wrote the report that morning. Though I certainly agree it's a mad house up there generally.

All available evidence--from MWAC reports to Internet TRs to my own field observations--screamed to me that slides were certain on east facing steep terrain Saturday and Sunday. Our tests showed small deposits on the steeper micro pockets on the easties failing obviously and effortlessly. IMO both Saturday and Sunday on steep east facing terrain (from GG to FC) were games of estimating "where will the slide take me if I get caught?" and not "will it slide?"

I don't like that game, and we chose not to play it. The turns looked oh-so-sweet though...

I think some people might have believed the MWAC was crying wolf, and there was a weekend inflation component to the "considerable" ratings those days. Personally I rated the bowls at "extreme" though; human triggered avalanches were certain IMO.

Pretty sure Greg meant that sarcastically.

Actually I did not. Glad you're ok.

[thin cover]

Glad you were ok as well Neufox, getting to that side of the gulf at the end of the incident and seeing the ghostly look in your face told the story. Always impressed how different the snow conditions can be just a few hundred yards away. We played it safe and backed down from the steeper ideas we had, there were lots of flags from our observations.


Went up with with Drew that day as well and non mag buddy. LOC side of oaks had much softer wind buff powder conditions with 4-5" penetration and little ammo exit was great loose pow 3-6" on a spring base. We broke Rog's rule, never leave good snow up there.

Drew





Nick in airplane bowl with Rob's crown visible in the background so you can see the scale of it, again glad you are ok bud


Drew in a sweet little ammo exit.



VTcoldsmoke keeping up with his name sake yesterday in the safe NVT shire

[buttahflake]

that big boy can surf the pow!

[clubhousebmx]

Thanks for posting about the avy neufox, very interesting to hear about all these different scenarios, and as someone without much field work its great to read these reports and learn what I can from them. Seeing TC's pic really puts it into perspective, that's a big slide and a bad place to get caught in one.

What is up with this upcoming weather? Pow day saturday after some base consolidation?

[gpcharles]

What is up with this upcoming weather? Pow day saturday after some base consolidation?

completely average april weather.