Chuting it down

Today Mike and I went to Wolverine Cirque entering and exiting from Alta. Conditions are getting generally heinous so we figured we go do some chute skiing. We skied both east and north facing between aroud 40 degrees, including boot packing up one of the shutes and the pack was hyper solid no signs of instability at all.
Our first ski was down either The Huge Chute or Tips and Tails (we will have an agreement on that after exhaustive analysis of the photo finish…). The second one we did was Bombay (there is consensus on that one). The picture below is of the entry of either The Huge Chute or Tips and Tails (click to enlarge)…

…and this one is of me and Mike in the cirque (photoshoped i.e. although the mountain details are real that configuration is not):

How extreme is extreme skiing?

Ever since Patrick Vallençant, Anselme Baud, Pierre Tardivel and others launched the movement while people like Doug Coombs, Shane McConkey and others brought it further, extreme skiing has fascinated a lot of people including this writer. Incidentally all these people and many more died on the mountain. A question that I think is not fully answered is: What is extreme skiing? We all heard of the easy clear sounding definition “if you fall you die”. That would somehow settle it; that If you are on a line where a fall could/would be fatal you just skied an “extreme” line. Alright, so is it any-fall-on-this-line-will-kill you or is it a fall-on-this-line-can-kill-you? I think the difference is not insignificant as a lot of places you could die on are not necessarily that extreme. Also, what is an extreme skier? Someone that got lucky a couple of times on some hardcore lines or should it be a more regular occurrence? If so, how regular? Is an extreme skier someone that does X number of descents down a Y degree line or higher that are no shorter than Z elevation loss? As a caution to anyone feeling frisky you can see Garett Bartelt's fall by clicking here.

Red Pine

Today we went in to Red Pine from the White Pine trailhead. We went there partially because it is a spectacular drainage (especially the upper part beyond Red Pine lake) and also because with our current lack of snow cover you definitely want to remain as high as ever possible. Turns out that even when staying high, the snow quality is now marginal on essentially all aspects and the cover is thin enough for you to hit the occasional rock. On the positive side: The weather was gorgeous and we did not witness any signs of weakness in the snow pack. Below is a picture of an east facing line in upper Red Pine with Whit Baldy in the background:

The picture below shows the undefined “we” in the first sentence above. From left to right – James. Scott, Mike and yours truly:

...and finally, just because the snow quality is marginal, it does not mean that no skiing is going on:

Race day at Snowbasin

Whoever is following this blog closely (all two of you at least, and no Jana, one's spouse doesn't count in the marketable circulation numbers…) will remember the December 5th “Proud moment” (click to view) posting about my son Max making it onto the Park City Devo (as in development) team. Well after a few training sessions, today was the first race day and the venue was Snowbasin. A wonderful ski resort with a solid and sustained 3,000’+ fall line and very varied terrain that is not all groomed into terminal lame-hood. This was the venue for the SLC 2002 Olympic alpine downhill race by virtue of its sustained fall line and generally strong infrastructure. The men’s and women’s starting cabins for that event are still there as you can see in the picture to the left (click to enlarge). In any case this was race day and although most of the mornings Max has a hard time getting up at 7 am for school, today 6 am for the race was no problem at all… He was up at 6 sharp ready, willing and quite able. He went in to this race with his usual mix of excitement, anticipation and tension (and a touch of anguish for the parents) right up to the moment when he gets into the starting gate when it seems winning is becoming everything for him. To everyone’s great relief he performed very solidly in this giant slalom two run race which always turns these days into great party that goes on into the night. You can see Max expressing himself in the picture to the right (click to enlarge). Below is a general view of the Snowbasin cliff bands at the top of the John Allen Express lift.

Situating yourself in upper Big Cottonwood Cyn

Below is a picture I took from the Park City ridge line from the top of Scotts Bowl. You can even see the ropes put up by PCMR that no one would ever cross, of course. You get a pretty good view of Woolverine Bowl (just under the Mt Woolverine peak) which is easily accessible either from the Millicent lift in Brighton or the Supreme in Alta. That bowl is often a good starting point for a great day in the BC.
Hopefully this shot can be of some sort of use to someone out there (click to enlarge).

Long John Silver delivers the treasure

Today we went up White Pine in Little Cottonwood looking for high elevation skiing in this snow poor season. White Pine as always delivered. The snow quality coverage was good even though we skied Long John Silver which is a south-west aspect.

A feature of White Pine that I always liked, is the bridge over Little Cottonwood Creek at the very beginning of the trail, that you get to cross on skis. If you are not already there, it kinda puts you right in the mood for another glorious BC day (see picture to the left, click to enlarge).

Today there were three of us on the tour; Mike, Scott and yours truly. We spent about two hours reaching the base of Long John Silver (see picture to the right, click to enlarge).
Once there we did laps. The snowpack seemed bomber and gave no signs of any weaknesse at all. According to our friends of the Utah Avalanche Center this makes sense as south-west is the aspect that is supposed to be the least risky today.
Now with the snow cover being what it is and considering that the snow line stops about 200 feet below Red Stack, Long John Silver delivers a solid 1,000 feet vertical with a resonably steep fall line on top. As you can see below, there is a potential for a fairly long skin up:

Below is a picture of the Pfeifferhorn in the distance with its hanging snowfield (click to enlarge):

The Hallway Couloir

This is a line that can be more risky to ski to than down. That is unless you bootpack it up… Coming from the Reed and Benson ridge is less work but the final approach is kinda tricky as you have to traverse from point 10,561 (the peak just north of Flagstaff Mountain) down a 40 degrees + slope that cliffs out (as in BIG cliffs) below you. Not the place you want to be caught in an avalanche or even any serious sluffing… In any case once you are in it, this is an impressive, scenic and delightful ski. You drop about 800 feet in the couloir and then an additional 900 in the “tube”.
The name can seem redundant as Couloir is French for Hallway but in this case Hallway is not primarily referring to a hallway but rather a play on Doug Hall’s last name. He was an avid backcountry skier and climber that died in 1997 when he got swept away by an avalanche while ice climbing in Provo Canyon.
The picture below gives a sense of what you have to go through to get to the Hallway from above but is not detailed enough to actually show you the way so don’t rely on this shot to find the entrance (click to enlarge).

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.