Situating yourself in Cardiff Fork

This is another one of my amateur composite skyline picture. This one is supposed to help one getting situated in Cardiff Fork relative to the surrounding peaks and other main features. The picture was taken from the Reed and Benson ridge a little north of the top of Main Days (click to enlarge).

Days Fork and Main Days

Yesterday Mike and I went to Days Fork entering from Alta exiting at Spruces. The picture to the left shows Cardiac Bowl and Ridge seen from Reed & Benson ridge (click to enlarge). Conditions are generally good with some localized weaknesses. With our current snow cover (or lack thereof) you definitely want to remain as high as ever possible. The picture to the right is of Mike on Reed & Benson ridge looking into Days and the Park City ridge line behind.

Our first ski was down from between Flagstaff and the Days Fork headwall. The snow was nice, creamy and stable. After that we went to the top of Main Days and dug a pit on the north facing. Schematically speaking the pit showed about a foot and a half distributed as follows: Soft powder on the top third, harder and crustier on the third below and at the bottom a third of really rotten “sugar”. I got kind of impressed being on a major avy path that, admittedly in very worst case scenario, could break to the ground. We skied the somewhat more benign east facing shots and they felt really stable (no cracking, whomping or any other signs of weakness). After that we worked our way down the drainage, one ridge line at a time. The last run was a couple of ridgelines down from Banana Days. It started at about 10,100 and dropped to about 8,700 of sustained fall line, so a really nice line. However on the top steeper part the snow cover was quite markedly thinner than everything we skied higher up that day. I guess this means that until another couple of storms hits, we will need to ski the really high terrain exclusively… Below is a picture of one of many dramatic parts of the Reed & Benson ridge (click to enlarge).

Avalanche-pack face-off! Update

Some of you may remember that The Whippet ran an avy airbag series in October of 09. That series culminated on Oct. 26 in a comparative of the three vendors (to see that post click here). You may also recall that ABS Systems were at the time updating their price list and so we had to fly kinda blind on their deal. While I was travelling on a ski trip to Chamonix they sent me their new list which I have summarized below:

For reference I am adding the (incomplete) comparative table in the original post. As an example of how to use this data, to "fill in the blanks" under, say the Vario 15 unit, you have to add $910 (price of Vario Base Unit) to $105 (price of Vario 15 bag) plus either $130 (steel activation unit and handle) or $250 (carbon activation unit and handle). So your Vario 15 L system will be either $1,145 (steel cartridge) or $1,265 (carbon cartridge). Click to enlarge these tables.

The preseason is dead! Long live the season!

Finally the preseason conditions that started as early as October 3rd and seemed endless are finally over! Just in time - as this IS the last day of the year. Talking about the last day of the year, I was today respecting an age long (OK few years long) tradition with some friends: The New Years Eve Wasatch BC Ski. This may sound like a major event – that’s because it is. Today it included six of us (when I say major I obviously don’t mean number of people showing up…).

One of the advantages of a “Considerable” avy risk forecast is that you get a place like Cardiac Ridge all to yourself. How often does that happen? Below is a picture featuring exclusively our lines:

These are only our Cardiac ridge lines; we got a lot more in, from south facing under the Pole Line to Ivory Flakes with an exit on Raynolds Flats. If you ever want to do a bi-canyonal, I strongly recommend parking at 6200 S and taking the ski bus. That's because at 6200 you get to ride up Little Cottonwood and down Big Cottonwood.
Now, back to our title theme, to show you that we are now truly in season: Below are two pictures taken today that definitely should be worth more than 2,000 words (click to enlarge)… Enjoy, and
Happy New Year!

The Canyons of Last Resort…

I don’t know how common this is but in the pre-season i.e. not enough snow, I skin a lot in resort in preparation for the season. Alta is an early candidate as they always seem to have at least some snow (late September - early October) until they open, often in mid to early November. A bit later, at least if you live in the Park City area, PCMR becomes an attractive candidate as they make tons of the artificial stuff, but of course of the three resorts here, they open first so then; no more skinning. Now, it’s time to migrate to Deer Valley and their Mount Baldy until they close in early December. The final stop is the Canyons; typically the last one to open. So being December 15 and all, I dragged myself up there today with my dog, Skadi, for a training round. I skinned up Silverado (see picture to the left) to the Lookout Cabin and when I was there, to my surprise, other than the Golden Eagle it seemed all the lifts were open! So there I was in the middle of resort action with my skins, my dog, looking like I am saving on lift tickets! The ski patrollers were staring, taking “amongst themselves” as it were but, I guess, too bewildered to do anything at all about it. The bonus is that I got to ski down Super Fury, in resort, with my dog…

I guess this means pre-season is now officially over and that is just fine with me. I already got 25 days of pre-season training and I am ready for the real stuff!

The picture below is of  Square Top, the Patrol Cabin, two Canyons workers, and my dog Skadi....

Proud moment

Today was a resort skiing day at PCMR. The real reason for spending the day at PCMR, in resort rather than in the backcountry today is that it was try-out day for the Park City Devo Team. After years of the PCMR Learn To Race (LTR) and then Farm Team, my son Max Askmo, 10 years old, decided to try out for the Devo team. This team has a lot of history as one of the best programs in the nation and has included kids such as Ted Ligetty. So for my son (and his parents), this was not a small thing. Max went in to this with the usual mix of excitement – anticipation – tension – anguish right up to the moment when the list of invited participants is posted on the wall. His name, by virtue of the alphabetical order, was the second entry on the list and I could see that he was visibly relieved! Indeed a proud moment. Below are the pictures taken just after the announcement when Max and his buddy, Aydon Lee, were savoring the moment at PCMR (click to enlarge):

The Whippet Likes Man Made

Today’s tour was supposed to be strictly a workout as we (me and Mike) left with no expectations whatsoever of any good skiing opportunities at all. So we took off to Deer Valley at Silverlake. We skinned up the service road to the top of Mount Baldy. We encountered a few ski patrollers giving us the thumbs up and a couple who told us that strictly speaking the mountain was closed. They were nice about it though and let us go on, I guess they are skiers too… The clincher on all this, is that with Deer Valley prepping for Saturday’s opening (which means this is the last workout at Silverlake for this season), the slopes were impeccably groomed and us being the only ones on them, we had some phenomenal and fast runs. To the left is a picture of the a snow cannon, Whippet and all and below is yours truly with Skadi on the whales (picture credits: Mike Florance).