2/16/12 Hey Buddy/West Wall Revisit

Saw a two guys I recognized from yesterday at the Pitkin stop again today.  Geared up, waiting for the bus  and ready for battle in EV.  MFD all-time/ Pontoons and his buddy mid-fat Atomics/ Naxos (the worst AT binding of all-time, sent myself to VVMC on those things).  Asked them about yesterday, what they saw and such. Just interested in their observations from a big cycle day.

Didn’t think anything of it until I got to the bus stop after my lap. Saw MFD Pontoons standing alone. Said hey and inquired about the whereabouts of mid -fat Atomic.  MFD said that his buddy kicked off and lost a ski. He was now alone in the Racquet Club chute.  I asked him, matter-of – fact, why he wasn’t he with him? The answer.

MFD said that mid-fat didn’t know where he was exactly in the chute, but MFD had a good idea where he was.  He was in touch by cell phone and was going to go around, find him then render aid.(Really?)

MFD said Mid-fat knew from yesterday that his bindings were “loose”, and he should’ve cranked them down, but ignored his advice. (punishment for using Naxos?)

Loaded the bus and sat watching MFD render aid by text.

When it hits the fan, who do you know that you can trust to keep their head and help you? How do you know?  Solo missions might get a bad rap, but is it better than having a useless partner? Finding able partners isn’t the easiest thing, and might not be the buddy who is leading you into EV.  No easy answer.

Went to check out the West Wall slide from yesterday. My personal powder hunting tempered by the recent events.  Hit the ridge on a beautiful sparkling morning, with a couple of inches of fresh again as the snow cycle remnants moved through. Not many people out.

Checked out the track in the skier’s right side of the Wall that was put down by the skier who triggered the slide.  He skied the first gully skier’s right  in the Wall where you can sneak through through cliff band with minimal/ no air.  A small sluff on the line, but that seemed to not relate to the actual avalanche.   The actual slide was remotely triggered 75 feet to the skier’s left of the track towards the middle of the bowl. The crown was a foot to two feet deep.

West Wall Crown

Dug a pit on the 25 degree lead in to the roll over in the middle of the Wall, above the small, butried rock band that lines the top. Representative of the E aspect, but not the incline, as the face below the band rolls into the  thirties at least and gets more sun than where I was going to dig.  Heres what I saw.

Air temp: 3 C

Surface temp: 3 C

0-60 cms: 3mm facets/ fist –

60-70cms: melt/freeze crust/ pencil

70-80 cms: .5 mm facets(coulmns?) fist –

80-145 cms : .5 mm sintered rounds/ 4 finger

145-160 cms: .5 to 1mm stellars (new snow)/fist –

Thick crust with small, loose facets above the crust, below the dense, sintered old storm snow. Significant temp gradient around the crust.

West Wall Pit

Did a couple CT tests.

Here’s what I saw.

First column: CT-12 at 65cms Q1.  Ran on the facets above the MF crust.

Second column: CT-2 Q2 at 35 cms. This column ended up next to an evergreen shrub. Broke within the depth hoar. Interesting the crust was knife hard around the shrub area.

Filled in my pit and headed out to the bus on a Tele Line ridge run.  No obvious new activity.

Another Mushroom burial/injury on 2/16, not sure of all the details.  Heard that the Kitchen was the place of the first accident a couple of days ago, not sure the exact location of this one, but Mushie strikes again.