2/9/10-2/10 Chance of Snow
Chance of snow. Finally. No hundred percent chance of sixteen inches that leaves us like a jilted bride at the altar. Chance, that’s all we ask here in the Vail valley. My favorite forecast.
Currently snowing here, and Thursday/ Friday provided the best EV skiing of the year, but with different stability indications. Yesterday, stomping the edge of the yet to be formed cornice of Old Man’s with skis sent the 60-80cm of wind load to the egde of the frying pan with an easy shear, but did not propagate or step down in the rollover gulley past the first flats. (This measurement is rough and only is at the very top of the run at the start of the rollover where the cornice usually forms.)
Friday, at the same place, with renewed wind load even deeper, around 80 cm, the same test produced no shear and moderate cracking that didn’t fully break. Soft slab blocks stood perched on edge, but refused to drop and run.
Thursday
Skiing was excellent both days, the snow on Friday was thicker and sprayed like spoonfuls of mashed potatoes on each turn as we got into the midddle of the bowl. The snow stayed knee-deep and fresh all the way through. Watched a group of four ski left Benchie with no results. The tracks in West Wall, Tele Line, Benchie produces no slides that I could see. Didn’t have much movement on my run and only minor sluffing running the right middle concave gully. The following four tracks had only minor surface pockets moving a very short distance. The upper part of the pack seems to be stronger than it was a week ago, Definitely interesting to see the change in 24 hours with the same rudimentary test in the same place.
Super big Saturday with the Teva games in town and the mountaineering race ends up at Benchie. Will racers and EV skiers be battling for the same skin track? Much pressure this weekend and hope the seeming increasing stability is for real.
Also, check out this TGR blog if you haven’t already.
2/8/12 Meadow Mountain/ EV Trip Reports
Took advantage of the perfect weather to do a midnight skin up meadow mountain under the full moon on Tuesday with Luke and Paulie and dog. First group gathering gearing up for the AK world as it is now a countdown in days towards the end of the season. Surreal snow world cast in a ghostly bone white light, the trees and skin trail glowed brightly under the moon. We worked our way upward through the meadows and aspens while snow machines rallied around us, transferring partygoers from the trailhead to the cabin for a full moon party.
After a couple of hours we arrived at the cabin, drawn into the cabin by firelight and laughter. We arrived and were greeted warmly by the Mushroom people, speaking in tongues and smiling, They welcomed us to their fire with clicks and whistles and we obliged them. The light from Minturn and Vail were visible and the Gore range rose up in authority, bathed in blacklight.
The ski down was low angle and variable, pockets of stale powder, interrupted by frozen track chatter. Dog decided that snow machines were more fun and took off on us. Luke got a second lap around midnight back to the top by snow machine and a bonus ski down with the wayward mutt.
Headed out to EV on Wednesday afternoon in rising westerly wind and lowering, thickening grey clouds. Haven’t been back in some days, so again interested in what has transpired since last week. Hit the poma and was warned by an older guy passing by on the catwalk about the danger in the West Vail Chutes.
Top of the world and I saw tracks beaten in the usual places. Much of Benchmark is unrecognizable from last year and unskiable due to low snow, so the skier’s left side is hammered. Right side of West Wall, Tweeners and Tele Line all had tracks. No recent slide activity that I could see.
First time able to ski left past the initial cliff band and into the right center of Old Man’s. The upper scarp is still rock hard, Supportive dense wind buffed pow skied o.k and the roll over areas through the two cliff/reef areas held fast. About a dozen tracks littered the skier’s right side middle of the bowl, while the CDC area remains unskied. The bottom of Old’s had covered mounds of old debris.
First time cutting over to the MVP area from Old Man’s, wanting to see how the Forgotten Trees were skiing. Upper turns in the trees were more stale cake but fresh, as most of the other tracks headed straight. Came upon the first cliff band and side-stepped off a three-foot ledge onto a briefly steep(40 degree) open tree pocket after the rocks. Sunk to the ground and fractured a small area under the rocks that disintegrated like sand.
Took the opportunity of standing on terra firma and looking at a small but distinct fracture line to take a look at the snow. Not much change 2-3 m facets less than fist density, topped by slightly denser old and new storm snow. Any column cut still can’t stand on its own and fractures Q3 within the facets. No real surprise in stability. Still around 110 cms.
Ended up skiing 30 ft wide refilled bed surface pockets in the trees to get to the exit. Traversed out onto thin and crusty east face and onto the track out to the bus. Thin fast and littered with stumps and bushes, it is not fun. Biggest March ever.
Bizzaro Vail
Haven’t been back in a few days as the skiing was marginal last time I was out. I’ve been taking advantage of the continuing spring weather to get back on piste and start to put the work skiing wise in for the upcoming AK trip. Almost died off the Avanti catwalk yesterday as I hit it too straight on and rocket shipped to the flats. Recovery training, check.
Greybird Thursday morning and I’m headed back out to see what if anything is going on. No new precipitation, but forecast is hopeful for today and tonight. Stuck on the one fifty ish mark for snowfall, La Nina needs to kick it up for the next three months.
Reflecting on the season, and though it has been the leanest in terms of snowfall in my time here, its honestly been one of the most interesting in terms of avalanche cycles and human nature. Things like lower Sugar mountain and Windows, sliding for the first time in many years. In bounds avi fatalities, but none outside the gate(luckily and thankfully). Very warm spells after snows and no real continuous snow for more than a day. It just has been off. John the EV bus driver, compares this to the 82-83 season, when a powder day didn’t rear its fluffy head all year. However, he said the next year was the biggest year he’s ever seen. Interesting local weather observation from someone been here for a few years.
In terms of human nature, the reaction to EVI, (and whatever demon shape you choose to let it take in your own perception) has been equally interesting. Culminating a stalk/showdown in front of Gorsuch, the hype and misinformation has hit its peak. This blog was started with the loftiest of goals and best of intentions, but we all know what road was paved with those. Fell for some of the baiting and I regret that. Otherwise, the idea of providing simple info for EV is something that has merit and if nothing else has got me to sharpen my own snow skills and appreciate the runs I’ve had back there. I It’s a great training area for big mountain skiing and its location and ease of access next to the biggest ski complex in North America represents some unique challenges in terms of access and safety.
I think my lesson learned is that skiing is an individual sport to the core. All those ideals of appealing to the EVI “community” is really appealing to a thousand different ideas of what is right in terms of line choice protocol and group safety. No real surprise there, I guess. But the reaction from people I know locally, that know the amount of time in I have out there has been the most enlightening. A measure of respect was called for, but not given. The FFHBC(frustrated fathers/husbands backcountry collective) has taken responsibility. Noted.
Starting to snow, packing it up and headed out to get some info. Report back soon with some objective info.
1/29/12 East Vail Dog Shack/ Trip Report 1/29/12
As the tour buses pull up and deliver hundreds of Japanese tourists ready to schralp the gnar, we realized a key component was missing in our customer service .With the proper permits in place and a written authorization from the mayor of EV himself, we proudly introduce plans for the East Vail Dog Shack, a 5000 square foot yurt that will provide a range of pay for services. Hot dogs, maps, sports psychology seminars, bumper stickers that say “I Did An Old Man’s” will be waiting for the intrepid client.
Unbeknownst to me, the EVI Parkasaurus Rex has already been built. I was witness to some fine freestyle X-Games style snowboarding action on my way out to the bus. With a little medical training, I felt compelled to watch the first send of the Frozen Catfish, the most technically demanding trick ever. I’m gonna give it to him on the landing. He landed on his head but was o.k. They were having fun down low.
Parkasaurous Rex
Took Saturday off, as is my ritual, and it’s always nice to go back and see. The tracks tell a story. Usual tracks down the left side of Abe’s, Tweeners, Tele Line was hit and all the traverses were in. Went down the ridge and encountered the wind slab up top with a little emerging cornice. Spent some time cutting fridge size chunks with a saw/pole combination sending them onto the scarp before dropping in and down in the trees.
Snow was dense and wind affected but held and little movement. A sign of a small natural hard slab release up towards CDC, but not significant in terms of size or run. Dove into the east side trees near the flats to dig a pit.
Another 35 degree N-NE slope at 10000 feet, higher than the last area I dug in, but other wise similar. It was another storm to warm cycle, and it was balmy again (6 C). Snow surface temp was -3 C, but didn’t need to get temps because the whoomphing and propagating cracks to the top of the convex roll told the story. Again I chose a spot where above me was walled with trees and downfall close by to limit the hangfire.
As I dug the columns and readied them for testing, each of the three columns failed during the cutting process. The snow was 110 cms deep the columns failed within the 2mm facets that made up the first layer from the ground. Easy, but not a clean sheer. That’s just bad.
The stability is terrible in the trees, but Old Man’s right side/ lower midle had five tracks in it with no activity. There was signs of debris in CDC, covered by the recent storm.
Skiing was o.k and didn’t see any movement, but the pit was pretty much as it was before.
What I saw in the pit.
Ground to 35 cms: Fist 2mm facets loose, moist.
35 cms to 85 cms: Four finger .5 mm rounds old storm snow.
85 cms to 110 cms: Fist 3 mm stellars new storm snow.
Ragged shear in the facets when cutting the columns. CTE-Q2.
1/25- 1/26/12
Headed back to my testing trees on Wednesday afternoon, a nice slow mellow skin on a perfect blue sky day. Wanted to take my time on my day off to head back to the trees and check to see if the day of warm weather had done anything to the snowpack. On Top of the World alone in the afternoon is aways a place of welcome solitude, and needed after a nutty week.
Skied my Old Man’s run not noticing any new activity from the days tracks. The middle was debris filled and covered and there were tracks slowly pushing out from the trees, emerging from the weekend cycle. The snow felt more supportive than it had been, but no guarantee of stability. Also, tracks had been put down in the left of Abraham’s, and it was obvious people were testing it. Of course Tweeners was hit, but I won’t ski Tweeners agin this year. Just my own opinion on that.
The East facing traverse to the lower trees were crusted from sunhit and uneventful. Felt like a spring day. Nice to take a break from the black flag conditions we have been experiencing. Got back to my area, and found a fresh, non fractured part of the crown to try again.
Snowpack was the same as the day before, no changes I could see except the air temp(2 C). Cut two columns and got very different results. CT-24Q2 and CT-30Q2, which was much different from the day before. Seemed like a huge change, so I cut another two and got CT-4Q2 and CT-2Q2. Not sure the issue, but those are my results, interpret as you will.
However it did seem that things were backing off a little and the day of warm temps did seem to help consolidate the lower trees a little, but didn’t cure by any means lurking instabilities. Like last time before, I was interested in the pack before the storm.
Not sure how the new snow will react until it hits, but hoping for danger not to be as elevated as last Sunday.
1/26/12
Watching the storm dump snow on my deck by the inch. 9:30 and four or so has fallen, with light winds and snow with a little moisture. Coming in to another big weekend and hoping things are going to line up for a good one. Won’t be out on Saturday, but interested in what’s going to go down. Headed out tomorrow mid day to enjoy and remember why I’m doing this. Let you all know.
Hell Yeah! Old Man’s Revisit 1/24/12
Headed up the Visti sipping a forty and listening to Def Leppard. Around Visti pole six I shot up, and by the top I was feeling loose. By the time I reached the Top of the World, I was cross-eyed and tingling. Continued down to Old Man’s where I stripped off all my clothes and straight lined the middle, still listening to Def Leppard and screaming “Ski to Die” with a Born to Lose tattoo on my bare chest, just like I did last week. Passed out in the trees at the bottom. Woke up an hour later, and started my traverse out.
It must have come to me in a dream, that everywhere in EV was filled with evidence of the large cycle that happened this Sunday. Crowns and debris were everywhere in areas over thirty degrees, N-NE facing in the trees. Found a good spot on a NE convex roll over around 9500 feet in a 150 foot wide clearing that had fractured during the cycle. A good spot to test in as the hangfire was minimal above, about fifteen feet to the line of trees and bed surface under my feet.
I wanted to check out the snowpack, and then do a couple tests and see if my results were in line with the obvious instability. Also I wanted to see if stability was any better a couple days after the event. I found the spot. It was N-NE facing, the roll over pitching to 36 degrees at the top of the crown. I choose to do a full pit profile, then compression tests and lastly an AK block, a test created in Alaska by Bill Glude.
You need a graduated probe, two dial snow thermometers(digital suck) a snow saw, inclonometer, a field book and a pencil. Keeping your pack and gloves on, lay your pole on the snow and use your shovel to make a nice clean wall down 160 cms the length of the pole in AK here to the ground. Why 160? Hard to trigger a weak layer over six feet, a full column would take too long in AK in the field. Put your probe in the side of the pit to use as a measuring stick.
Dig your pit and smooth the face of the area as wide as your pole. Enough room to not only look at the snow but then be able to cut columns for your test. Profile the snow on the graph in your book, noting hardness, depth of different layers, different crystal types and sizes. Also note temperature gradients every 10 cms(temperature gradients indicate poor adherence from one layer in the snow pack to the other. By using two thermometers at once you can expedite the process. You also note time, aspect, elevation, sky cover, snow and snow surface temp Looking for obvious weak layers, crusts and density changes. Use your hand brush whatever to feel the layers out and expose them. Mark three shovel indentations gently on top of the snow and cut each shovel mark with your saw and excava the sides of the block with your shovel to give yourself room to cut the back of the block with your saw to isolate the cloumns.
not quite ready to cut into columns gotta clean it up
Cut the back of the block from both sides with your saw and eliminate the column in the middle. Now you have two isolated columns. Lay your shovel genlty on top of each column and do your CT(compression tests wrist, elbow and shoulder.) tests and check your results.
I dug to 110 cms and hit ground. I got CT-2(compression test with column failure on two wrist taps)on both columns with a Q1(very clean, easy) and Q2 sheer(moderately easy, not as clean) respectively at 60 cms on the old settled storm snow(.5 mm degraded stellars) interface on the 2mm loose facet layer. That means very not good. If you were guiding, you’d get the hell out of there.
facets of doom
Looking down the crown, I saw this was the layer weak layer on which the slab ran, probably triggered by a traversing skier or maybe naturally during Sundays’ cycle. So far so good. My transient test results confirmed the still awful stability in the trees.
Next was an AK block, a Reuchblock without the back cut, basically to make it more representative of a natural slope. Lay your skis out and dig the block face to your desired depth, 160 cms again is good or to an obvious weak layer you want to test. Isolate the sides of the block to a pole length with your shovel/saw.
The idea is to get your skis on, and get on the block. First flex your knees, then a deep flex then a series of jumps until you get the block to fail. Then you determine the stability by that number. Indicator of very bad stability.
Cut my block, took my skis than took one boot step uphill next to the block and the convex roll fractured 4 feet above the last crown 75 feet wide and moved about a foot. Exactly why you keep your Float pack on during a test. It did surprise me and I ended up hugging a chair sized block but again the slide had happened here couple days ago and I was standing on bed surface. I can only imagine what is was like on Sunday in these trees. The block itself triggered remotely with a Q1(easy clean) shear as well.
If you were doing any of these tests on a uncontrolled slope, you would have a spotters and/or anchors. Make you own decisions and do your own tests on your own ability level, using your own judgement. This goes for your skiing as well. I skied down linking snow-covered debris piles to stay out of trouble.
Bottom line: still crappy stability, but most main areas have run, although lurking pockets of instability im sure are there especially in the trees. Able to ski covered bed surface in all steep areas to avoid possible triggers. Although not like a few days ago, still very suspect in unskied debris free N-NE areas all elevations but especially down lower. East facing had crusted up due to the sunhit.
Snowpack: No significant temperature gradients in the pack
Here’s what I saw in my pit.
Ground to Twenty cms: Four finger 3mm moist loose facets.
Twenty to Sixty cms: Fist 2mm loose facets
Sixty to One hundred cms: Four finger settled old storm snow .5 mm degraded stellars
One hundred cms to one ten cms: Fist light new snow 2-3 mm stellars
At Sixty cms: The interface between the denser old storm snow and the loose facets was the spot where things have been triggering down lower in the trees.
1/23/12
Sunny after powder day in vail, but not much enjoyment in it after the tragic death of a 13 year old local skier. Bombs were resonating all day in the Vail area, with slides happening in places I’ve never seen before inbounds, like lower Sugar Mountain. We went out to check out expected releases in EV after the storm and reported near misses from yesterday and had no expectations of skiing. Had been two days since I had been back, purposely taking time off due to dangerous conditions. Saw evidence of natural and probable skier triggered avalanches, some of them considerable size. Check out the photos on Luke’s report.
Looked like yesterday was an active one, as slides, cracks and debris were all evident on E-NE slopes, a big one in West Marvin’s. Below treeline had evidence of large cracking and piles of debris indicating stability was terrible down lower in the trees yesterday as well. Heard a report of a partial burial below treeline yesterday but don’t know the details, I believe CAIC has the report.
Glad no one died in EV over the weekend, really thought it might happen. Hard to believe inbounds, though. Not much else to say. Hope to get back to enjoying the pow, but wondering if that is in the cards this season. Had some good skiing and didn’t see any new activity today, but in light of recent events, it doesn’t matter. Pow skiing should be fun not tragic.
1/20/12 Tele Line Revisit
Crazy swings in temperature last few days. 13 below to 40 above in a couple of days with a rain snow mix yesterday in town. Switched to snow to the valley floor sometime Thursday night and woke to two inches on my deck with warm temperatures again.
Went with my buddy Paulie out to Tele Line where we had skied the last storms’ snow on supportable crust, bypassing anything steep(30+ degrees)and north facing again. The constant weather factor for the last few days has been the jet stream wind, up again and howling on the ridges out of the northwest. Same deal today as the next front intensified around 12:30 and started dumping a heavy wet, Pac-Northwest style snow. Nice storm skin as the only two other travelers were ahead of us and disappeared into the white out above the poma.
Hitting the point, the winds were calm again as on Wednesday, and the east-facing run was slathered in twenty cms of dense new snow up top. Did a quick hasty pit, similar shallow pack as Wednesday with the new snow supported by the crust underneath. I went first, skiied through the initial rock pillows and ditched it the trees early and waited for Paulie. No activity. Paulie dropped and met me in a cluster of dense old growth. The upper section skied well and the dense snow was nice supportive powder turns of the year. Bliss.
As we entered the middle section, things changed dramatically. We leapfrogged down to the traverse out, staying next to the ridgeline. Paulie let me know he was triggering whoomphing and propagating cracks in areas that I had skied. The thirty pound differential between us was enough to make the difference and allow him to punch through the saturated crust and trigger failure. We regrouped and went farther into the old stands. Entering lower elevations and into the rain/snow mix layer from the night before, the dense new snow wasn’t adhering to the increasingly saturated melt freeze crust. Bottom line the lower we got, the higher the avalanche danger became. We were able to traverse out in cracking boot top on ground dense snow to the aspens. If we get the snow predicted on Saturday and the pack on the Benchie traverse out becomes deep enough to slide, the traverse out could be treatcherous.The aspens down low were extremely sensitive, and shooting cracks and small slab collapses were all over, even worse than the cracking on Wednesday. Again Paulie, being a beast, was triggering areas I didn’t all the way to the bus.
Snow Pack Discussion.
After Paulie triggered the whoomphing and cracking in the middle elevations of Tele Line, we staged at some trees and I crept out and dug a hasty pit. (Yep it’s a bona fide real pit with NO SAW, it actually has a place in the world of snow science.) On the go assessment. A lot going on in the 60cm snowpack. Bottom 20 cms, 3 mm loose facets. Next, a five mm melt-freeze crust, pencil hard. Following this, fifteen cms of smaller loose facets, 2 mm. On top of this, another four to five mm melt-freeze crust again, finger hard, increasingly saturated as elevations lowered. Topping the cake was the 20-25 dense wet snow in the spot I was at, a sheltered spot, east facing around the middle of the line. (the depth of new snow varied drastically in different aspects and elevations. We were on a eastern aspect, with a good view of north east.) All propagating fractures were easily Q1 shears, but didn’t run any distance.
Paulie was collapsing the crust from mid elevations down and the storm snow was running on the collapsed crust on loose facets below. Danger was even higher today, than it has been in the last few days, especially in lower elevations N-E aspects. Didn’t get to test any W aspects at any elevation recently, but I assume similar types of results. We saw evidence of slab releases in NE aspects at 9500 ft and below. Temps have cooled off since the storm moved through and have skies cleared. Hopefully this will lock up some of the moisture and settle things, but this is just spray(a new phrase I learned today).
Concerned about Saturday, weekend crowds and the lure of pow will have intrepid souls venturing back there in very high danger. Hope all goes well, please let us know if you are out and see anything. Be safe. EVI
1/18/12 Trip Report from Colby D. and Crew Snow Pit Study Equals No Go
Wanted to share this trip report from reader Colby D.:
On our way out we stopped at the BCA park n did some practice digs. We saw Paul there and said he made it out to East Vail earlier but decided to come back (red flag 1). Decided to go anyway. Once we started to go through the windloaded areas I jumped off the track to give it a feel. I felt the snow dropping with every step and in my tracks you could see almost 2 inch air pockets on both sides (red flag 2). So we quick dug a pit. Again I am not a pro and didn’t have a saw so it was a janky pit but it had all the signs saying don’t go. the top footish in the first pit didn’t even hold up and make it to a compression test, second one did but fractured on the first hit from the wrist. that alone was enough to convince us not to go but then we noticed bellow where we had stepped of our splits there were fracture marks to (red flag 3). This on top of the fact there had been slide action in the area, we hit a few fun turns through mushy trees where the snow was heavy but had no problems.
Had a single binocular which was super cool to look at the snow crystals with
you can see the soft sugar snow under the hard layer half way up then the top is windloaded, also some punch tests
First column attempt, we didn’t have a saw so we cut it as clean as we could but it fractured before even the first set of compression tests.
Since we decided against east vail yesterday from the top we decided to hike a run we do fairly often with the dogs. I think people refer to it as half chute. regardless we were gonna hike up through the woods as we have an established boot pack and you’re never in any high risk areas. It was a rugged hike and it seemed wicked warm today. the snow was super sticky and heavy. Once we got to the top the snow had gotten lighter so we decided to dig around and check the snow out. We had already broken the top zone into mellow sluff slides in the trees on two prior occasions so we were wondering if it was much different than the area we dug yesterday.
the pups loving the deep snow
As we started clearing out the area there was a small fracture.
I increased the contrast on this shot and you can easily see the different layers, harder on top, softer underneath. Shitty but we came to this area because there is little consequence with the crappy pack.
Kinda tough to tell what;s going on here but the bottom block slide of the sugar pile above it on the 7th wrist compression. Further proving the consequential areas of east vail could leave you having a real bad day.
Brian and Goomba getting read to drop. The snow was super heavy, but it was fun and a good workout.
Thanks to Colby and his crew for the report and pics. We appreciate it andalways welcome outside content and comments-EVI
1/18/12 EV Thursday Where’s the Snow? High Avi Danger Continues
Big storm was supposedly headed our way. The jet is on us and it looked promising for last night. The blob NOAA showed us coming in from the Northwest made giddy as a schoolgirl. Huge and dipping below AK towards us, finally in a more west to east pattern. Bring it. I went to bed with powder dreams dancing in my head.
Woke up to another swing and a miss, somehow it went from 1000 percent chance of snow and a blizzard warning to really nothing. All bark no bite. A reoccurring theme this year, not sure how NOAA got it so wrong. Again. Now Saturday looks better, but, but honestly I give up on getting excited for storms that NOAA predicts for us this year.
Wednesday saw the temperatures and humidity rise with the incoming front. The recent new snow down lower in the aspens by our second run had begun to settle and were cracking, although not propagating more than a few feet as we plowed through it. A great indicator that even at lower elevations in the trees, the possibility of avalanching is on the rise. Rapid change in any piece of the avalanche puzzle weather, wind, temperature is always a warning sign for increasing avalanche danger.
Cracks in the Trees
Winds are still up, and the loading continues. 21 is open today, so the skin out won’t be as long. Two yesterday and my legs are feeling it. Might be taking the day off and writing hate mail to NOAA. Be careful out there, anything in the North facing, wind loaded aspects that haven’t ripped have a good chance of going at all elevations. Really a strange year so far to say the least.
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