3/30/11 Trip Recaps and Storm Report
hey all,
It’s been good to see new people checking out the site. We are always looking for content, so if you have trip reports or pics you’d like to see on here, please let us know, shoot us an email, or post up on the Facebook page. If we like your style, we might even get you on board as a contributor.
Now onto the goings-on from Monday and Tuesday:
Our third run to King A’s (now to be referred to as Horton’s Line in honor of the man himself), was an eye opener. Wall to wall rip in the upper panel of Horton’s, about 18 inches deep and two hundred feet wide, apparently skier triggered by someone traversing over to Gwenivere’s, ran all the way through the lower choke and into the flats above the last water fall. The soft slab debris was piled high in the gully, and luckily the ski tracks of the group before us showed everyone to be on top of the debris. Did a couple cursory beacon checks through the run, happily with no hits.
It is truly amazing the power of moving snow, and when EV sheds, it’s time to be cautious and take a mental note of the areas sliding.
Tuesday was much better stability as much of what could rip in EV Monday did. The new snow came with colder temps Monday night, and the six to eight of new fluff seemed much more stable, especially on the debris that slid yesterday. Able to get out to Old Man’s first and fresh. Always amazing to look through the notch and see a blank canvass in Old Man’s with good visibility. Gets the heart going, and you definitely want to stick the cornice entry in front of your friends.
DPS Dave, Big John, and I all managed to hit it. I went first, cut it to the right and skied the sparse trees. Able to watch those two tee up the middle. With nothing running from my cut, they took it. Awesome run. We staged before the lower bonus aspens for a safety meeting. Pulled out the probe and found a 95cm storm total in the north facing, fairly low trees and skied blower trees to the traverse out. Our bus ride was packed, and we knew getting out early was the call. Rather than deal with the second lap madness, we got off at Columbine and headed for the Gore once again…
…Oh the Gore, land of endless lines and lessons. Had the two o sevens for the skin, and quickly fell behind DPS and John as DPS Dave flew up the day old skin track and I tried to keep him in sight slogging the Caddies uphill. Had skin issues, culminating in a double skin fail face plant that had me covered head to toe in fluff. Tragically funny. As I was muttering hateful things at my skins and clearing my boot for another go, a voice behind me piped up. “You know, you really shouldn’t kick those AFD’s”
Behind me was flannel boss, not from our group, skinnys in tow flying up the trail, watching me flail like a wounded moose. Now being in Bighorn, having a skin moment in really no the time or place where I want advice raining down from the trees. “I work in a shop” he says. I just wanted a solo moment in the woods, covered in melting snow, hands filled with soggy, useless skins. I wandered to this side of the highway to get away from such third person interaction except for my friends. I told flannel boss to go ahead and that I as well work at a shop, but wasn’t really in need of Duke advice at the present time. Lesson learned, take care of you skins on a multiple skin day, even if you’re all jacked up about firsties in Old Mans.
Next lesson learned. If you come upon a large disgruntled man in the woods, don’t disturb him or offer upbeat advice. Stay calm and move along.
Caught up with my crew at the flats and offered apologies to my partners. Nothing more frustrating than failing skins. We followed Dave into the steep trees and were rewarded with deep shots all the way to the tree gully opening, about 750 feet below our entrance. The gulley to our right, Dave lead the way through the trees, avoiding the gully and the new two feet sitting on top of the melt freeze crust from the previous week.
Dave shouted clear, and I delved in farther right, asking the Gore gods if I could, might I, test the open pockets. After three turns on the tree spine wall, the answer was an emphatic no. Big J yelled and I knew that the beast was at my heels. I hit the throttle, skiing towards Dave position. Coming over the last steep roll, I found myself, in mid turn, on the bed surface from Dave’s slide, railing toward a stand of baseball bat sized Aspens.
It was a strike, and I filtered through the stand, ending up sliding head first through an evergreen tree well, dodging my sluff as it rolled by. Lesson learned, if loaded lower tree faces have slid once, probably will again. Don’t get greedy like I did, stay in the trees. Lesson part two – Small radios are a good idea in complicated terrain. Information such as “hey, I slid out the entire lower face, so watch out coming over the last roll” is valuable and can’t be communicated via shouting over wind gusts.
Big J rolled through cautiously to round out the group. We made our way out, scoping smaller tree chutes along the was. Again the Gore was chock full o lessons, good snow and dicey moments. Another great two days off, more pow, more lessons and painful comedy. Video from across I-70 coming soon…
3/25/11 El Terrible tree chute report
Hey late season EV schralpers,
Windy days in the Gore and EV the last few days with the storms that have rolled through. Went into the Bighorn drainage last week Tuesday to battle the isothermic snowpack held together with a top four inch crust layer. The warm weather the previous week resulted in water percolating through the snowpack in lower elevations, creating large loose facets in all aspects at lower elevations.
Big J and I went up the Bighorn ridge on a gale force day to explore more tree chutes, skinning up the south facing punchy melt freeze crust before dawn. The ridge lines were howling, the creaking of the lodgepole pines were a creepy reminder of the downfall potential in beetle kill forests in high winds. There were many recent downed soldiers, branches sticking out of the snow.
We skinned up to the farthest tree chute, our drop in really an educated guess in the thick trees. We dropped in and wove our way though the steep trees to the entrance of the gully and the increasing wind. Looking down the path, it look loaded. I decided to cut the left flank of the gully, over to a treed ridge. Passing John with a little pace, I expected a firm surface covered with the slabby six to eight inches. What I got was a sinking, submarining trip to the bottom of the snowpack about three feet down. I sunk backwards and ended up with one ski pinned underneath a rock I uncovered, falling backward onto the 40 degree slope. My efforts to release my binding were met with more sinking and twisting with no binding release. My knee was popping and slowly twisting out of place.
I was in a bad spot, and had no other option but to have John come down and help me out of my stubborn Duke. Not ideal, but a better option than skiing down with a dislocated knee, broken leg. The Gore had me whimpering, and showed me who boss. Thanks to Big J for saving my leg. I took a moment assessed the leg and continued on down skiers left flank of the gully. We quickly realized the gully was not an option. Every turn rolling into the side of the gully was met with instant slab release into it. The sixty mile an hour winds had done their job. We cautiously leap frogged down the ridge, skiing on alternating wind scour and boot deep slabby softness, watching it all peel at the slightest touch.
There were four slab peels that qualified as avalanches, the last one 500 feet above the deck was the largest, set off as I skied around a tree band. It propagated to a foot deep and a hundred feet wide. It started to suck me with it towards the last stand the trees. I was able to ski off it at a 45 degree angle, off to the side and watch it plow through the tree stand billowing and hitting trees with an audible whoomph sound. Impressive to say the least.
We named the chute El Terrible (tuh-ree-blay).
A humbling, sketchy, slightly painful run in the Gore. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
3/24 report for EVI
Hey all,
Been awhile for the posts, been a strange week. Two supposed eight inch dumps rolled through, the first with incredibly high winds. Spring has definitely sprung as the tops of benchie and old mans are skiing well with the new snow, but the lowers are scratchy and firm underneath as seemingly all our days of snow are followed by sun and extremely warm temps. Calling a bit of bullshit on the snow measurement, as neither day reporting eight inches seemed to be that deep.
Had and interesting run with my friend who’s first EV run was on Saturday. Went out to tweeners in the late afternoon and was stoked to see little activity, giving us room to do beacon work and orientation of the lay out in EV. Hardly noticed the two “no-pack” boarders wandering up behind us. We went down to tweeners to look at it and stomp some cornice before dropping in. A decent snow day with some tracks I dropped in after a cornice stomp broke the cornice behind me and dropped me into the run. Didn’t eat it, but a wake up call about the wind stiffening the once soft cornices into unpredictable slabs.
My buddy had to witness this mistake and probably wasn’t the greatest introduction into EV, but shit happens and I was able to get into a good spot for his entrance, directing him to the smallest cornice part while I waited. Out of nowhere, with no warning “no-pack” number one, without looking, flew off the cornice landed square on his ass, setting off a small soft slab right of me. Took me a second to process what was going on, when “no-pack” number two launched right on top of him, star fishing ten feet above his buddy who was stopped in the middle of the run.
My buddy was still on top waiting to drop in, staring down at the carnage. My mouth hung open at the stupidity and lack of any protocol. I yelled over to “no-pack” one, wondering what the hell he was doing. I actually had to yell it twice as my first inquiry got him to pull out his ear buds. My next inquiry was met with an invitation for a fight in the middle of tweeners. I declined as my friend was waiting up top and “no-pack” was technically in the middle of an avie path. “No-pack” one and two proceeded to roll down tweeners, sliding and ass checking their way down.
Wally was finally able to drop in and we were able to ski tweeners as we intended, alone and one at a time. He stuck the drop and skied it well. The rest of our run was decent and uneventful, moderately good snow conditions and a nice clear day to point out terrain features and different areas.
The bus ride was met with “no-pack” one and two sitting next to us with “no-pack” one explaining his inability to stick the three foot drop was due to the fact that his photographer wasn’t with him. He explained his motivation for a EV run was to find Vail locals and harass them, because EV sucks and he’s been around the state on his sleds in bigger badder terrain. Apparently his Dillion residence and Nuggets jersey has his steeze points off the charts, to a level my old self couldn’t even fathom.
He mentioned his allegiance to Strange Snowboarding. I checked out the video of these high rollers on you tube and saw three minutes of aimless hucking on vail pass with a ten percent success ratio, although the repeated head injuries revealed by the video shed some light on the decision making process shown by team Strange in EV.
The badgering continued for the whole bus ride and even had “no-pack” one following me up bridge street continuing with the harangue, challenging me to a race up EV as well as a challenge in the big boy line in the park, to fights, whatever. I deferred kicking his ass. I never got an explanation as to why, with the thousands of acres of terrain available they decided to follow and drop in on us.
Admittedly I am old and after 1100 or so runs in EV I do believe it is to an extent, my home. I have never gone to Breckinridge lined up in the park, dropped in on someone, and proceeded to talk shit to the locals after hacking it up, I never will. I have no problem with the young guns out there discovering a place I really like. There is no stopping the youths and having them safely explore EV is fine.
Couple guidelines though.
- Don’t drop in on people you are not skiing with. Ever.
- If you can’t stick the three footer, don’t talk crap about having your own photographer, you sound like an idiot.
- Carry gear. A beacon with a Melo jersey is not avie gear.
- Show a bit of respect to the locals, where ever you might be.
A shout out to the Nightmare Strange crew from Dillion, I look forward to your return. I think the name is perfect for you guys.
3/19 EV early report
Hey all,
Got an early Friday morning report from EV, nine new of the fluff and the sun has all the heavy hitters out early on big Fri. Seemed to be more snow west as this weird ass sw storm dumped rain then a late burst of snow Thurs night. Full on pow frenzy this Friday morning. I’m sure the two dozen early hitters represented Summit County and the Front Range well. Good to hear that Vail was also represented out there with the usual suspects teeing it up and some EV royalty imparting their special wisdom on others, go team!
We have never been closer to the moon, but the tides of EV seem to be well within normal ranges. Heading out at one today, skiing right of everyone else just to let you all know.
Oh if you didn’t already get the memo, Troy’s is the best shop around, EVI supports all our locals, but Troy’s is the official shop of EVI and for anyone that knows anything about pow.
Weather trip post 3/16
Happy Saint Paddy’s Day all,
Took a trip to EV yesterday in the building lenticular clouds and freshening SW breeze. It’s been downright hot the last few days as temps have been reaching into the fifties and sixties with S through E aspects fully corning up and lower elevations melting out completely. Had to check my calendar to see if it’s March or April 15th, the snow and temps are saying one thing and the calendar another. The skin track played out into S facing warm soft wind slab on the approach, reminding me of silky soft days on Alaska windblown pow. The winds had sculpted the clouds into various surreal shapes over the Gore and I enjoyed a lonely skin to the top of Benchie.
West Marvins ‘ showed signs of wet slab activity due to heating while the north facingr aspects were still shaded enough for wind smoothed pow. Went down to Old Mans and was pleasantly surprised to see the right middle to the right side of Old Mans was untracked probably due to the fact the cornice has built significantly over the last week or so and the entrance is overhung and burly. Took some time to stop some cornice and send a piece to the flats knocking loose some windslab on the upper scarp, built up from the prevailing winds on the harder surface from the days of warm weather and settlement.
It seemed a good opportunity to break out the G3 bone saw and cut out a section of the cornice a bit deeper to make a usable ramp for the drop in. Kinda nice being up there on a blustery day sawing some cornice without a soul in sight, a true labor of love.
I dropped and sent it towards the middle , as I made the first right turn that shaded a hair toward the NE into the gut, the snow instantly changed to glazed slush, an indicator of just how a slight aspect change in emerging spring sun can alter snow conditions drastically. Headed into the middle and stayed due north all the way down the bowl.
The MVP tres were another story. Thoroughly warmed, the snow skied like two feet of mashed potatoes, making skiing out a clinic in mank survival skiing. Had to ski carefully and slowly as the 207’s like to hang up in the deepest of crud. Overall a good run but with lower elevations warming on all aspects, the lowers are at times arduous.
The CAIC is calling wet slides, and the Gore and EV are no exceptions with natural activity on the south and east aspects visible. A new SW system is now north of us and we’re waiting to see if it dips to us this evening. Cooler temps will at least stop the melt for now and hopefully we’ll pick some snow tonight out of another temperamental SW storm. Cross your fingers.
Carl’s Cabin Trip Report
I gathered with my group at the Yeoman Park trailhead around 8:30 on Monday, March 7th for our hut trip to Carl’s Cabin. It is a beautiful wood hut six miles up in a great area below New York Mountain, near the Polar Star Inn. It may not offer the sweeping big mountain views of some of the other 10th Mtn Huts but it has this warm , tucked in Whitman and Thoreau transcedental glow to the snow loaded heathy pine and spruce forest that just whispers wilderness wonder.
The group casually gathered packs, food, and beer under a bright blue Colorado sky with chuckles and high fives of anticipation. We threw all the big packs, food, beer, and whiskey in the sleds and enjoyed a nice sunny skin up. It was just a short couple miles before the sleds returned from dropping the bounty and half the group right at the hut. With a quick tow we were all styling on that first sip of beer well before noon. I often have mixed feelings on snowmobiles (mainly cause I don’t have one) but it is a great feeling to ski some fresh up hill at over 30mph and Apres is so much better supplied by the 2 stroke.
The weather clouded over as we headed out for the afternoon tour. (Another advantage of the sleds – a fresh feeling afternoon tour.) We climbed through some big old growth up to the ridge above treeline. We could see the storms building to the west as we searched around the cornices to recon for any big routes for Tuesday.
Nothing looked too clear or appetizing enough even after traversing up and around more southwest, especially as new snow clouded visibility. Saw more big rock and overhanging cornice, but it did offer some cool views above the town of Fulford. A whole winter locked up in a cabin there I could become a mad backcountry skier or maybe just a crazy mad man. As evening approached we picked our way through the scree collecting the occasional scratch and core shot through the fresh few inches from Sunday night. As we hit treeline we began to sample some good north facing softness and tree shots as we skied back to the cabin. The snow picked up and dumped super hard for the last hour of the day, before parting for a nice show by Orion and the bottom crescent moon.
After a great dinner and all night apres we woke casually late to more snow and multiple imititations of my sleep apnea. (Which did upgrade me to an upstairs private suite for night 2). After coffee, pancakes, and fine bacon our group was off and breaking fresh trail up through the woods and above treeline. The snow was falling straight down with little wind in that serenity now pattern. The skiing was fabulous as we saw no ther groups that day as we skied lap after lap of big open north facing trees with a foot of deep fluffy face shot snow that you can taste the sweetnes of when you lick your lips. Took a late 4:20 lunch of Newcastles, salami, and Buffalo Pastrami sandwiches before setting out for a twilight rally of goodness. The last lap was in the early edge of darkness where your throwing white powder at the dark shadows, hitting the hole and just touching the deep soul of what moves you in these mountains. I can’t say enough how nice it is to get away from work and the resort grind to be in a great place with good friiends, good snow and good vibes.
We ended the day with our fourth pork product and the last of all the bourbon and scotch. The morning was filled with hasty cleaning and a final fast lap for one more fix of that fluff. Another great run down through more of an open zone, ending at a couple empty yurts. We gathered the last of our stuff, shouldered our heavy packs (as the haul sled had already left) and had a nice sunny 6+ mile ski down. What a great trip. There is something about a hut with snow rising up the windows, wood stove cranking, and all your buddies laughing in delight. Go out and get some!
March 10 post
Hey all,
It’s been a great few days in the zone. A southwesterly storm predicted to hit monday and tues was a bit of a swing an a miss, with it tracking south providing us with a few inches of blessed pow, but not nearly the amount that NOAA called for, typical for storms from the Southwest. DJ and I met up on Monday morning and skied a Benchmark, with the upper tracks not quite filled in but surprisingly deep in the middle section in medium density knee deep snow. The storm came in very warm but got colder between Monday and Tuesday with 10 F temps up top and significant wind from the west southwest. My second run was solo timber falls, always a nice tour solo to get away from it all. Snow was good again, and is one of my favorite places on a powder day.
Tuesday the on off snow continued and it stayed cold to keep the snow fresh and the moderate winds from the west southwest filled iln EV very nicely. Skied a Benchie left of mushroom rock in the choke. No longer madatory air, since the amount of snow this year has rendered even the mighty mushroom rock to a manageable height. It is truly amazing the amount of snow that has fallen and loaded in EV, the most I’ve ever seen in 14 years.
Wed was a great day with an unexpected cell dropping 7 or so inches of light wind fluffiness. Of course more fell in EV than expected and DJ took advantage of the thigh deep conditions to hit the gun barrel for the first time for the year.
Watching him drop and disappear into the white room was awesome as he was truly enveloped in a pow cloud all the way down. I skied my typical line in left side of the mushroom in choker conditions. However I was inspired by the gun barrel run and returned to do a late afternoon lap solo. I caught the last poma and enjoyed a lonely skin in beautiful afternoon light.
Up top, I moved to the right center of Benchmark, a line known as the ice fall skier right of the gun barrel. An area that is notorious for slides off all sizes due to the wind load and very little traffic. It has no safe area, and a slab ripping below the cornice is expected. You have to get and stay out in front and hit and stick the air to be safe, no stopping no pause, truly a big mountain training run.
I was able to get a spot from Brenden and Reef who were farther skiers right.
A deep breath and a push off the cornice sent me in to the white room immediately. As expected the wind load cracked in typical soft slab fashion. I had time to see the snow crack around me as I punched as fast as I could in the deepness. Able to keep my wits about me and hit the cliff with speed, luckily landing right of a buried, pillowed stump. The landing was over the head and was able to stick it and ski away. Looking back, I could see the shallow slab had ripped third of the upper bowl. The adrenaline factor and snow conditions made it the best run of the year.
After a howl into the wind. I finished the run with a traverse over to the forgotten trees. Trackless and fresh, it was perfect way to end a pow day. That’s all for now.
Bighhorn report
Hey people,
Just want to report on our excursion to bighorn on Tuesday. Big J and I went up up the bighorn ridge to tree line on a perfect blue sky early spring day.
We passed all the skin tracks and went to the top of the ridge and were rewarded with an awesome view of the gore and found ourselves on top of a large avie path.
After taking in the view, we decided to dig a representative pit on a due W aspect at 35degrees. We had time so I decided to dig a 180 cm pit. We found a 245 cm deep snow pack at 11,900.
Examining the pack we found no obvious lenses or crusts, with the density going from fist density to four finger all the way down, changing from 2mm stellars to 2mm rounds at 155 cm. On our compression test we found ctm 22 with a Q1 shear at 155 cm. The new fluff was reactive on the old storm snow, making sluff a concern.
Continuing our pit we found a CT25 with a Q2 shear at 100cm. Uneven shearing and little pop made us wonder if our column was at fault, so we tested it again and found similar results. Moderate stability and a right side up snow pack gave us confidence to keep exploring.
For the final test, we did an AK block, a reuchblock with out the back cut. This is a test created an promoted by Bill Glude an renowned avalanche forecaster, heliguide and avalanche guru from Juneau AK. After testing the block, and getting a RB 7, basically a no failure result, we decided to drop in.
The skiing was phenomenal up top. John and I leapfrogged each other staying closed to the treed edge, skiing to the choke. A traverse around the choke led us to some route finding and we ended skiing out farther skiers right, up the valley.
The terrain we were able to see and scout was alpine, rocky and steep, with the possibilities endless for exploration. Check out the photos. The Gore is the real deal, steep exposed and isolated. It deserves respect and caution. A great day all around.
EV report 3/4 Old Mans and team traverse
Howdy all,
Just skied an Old Mans this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised at the snow conditions. A nice seven or so inches back in the zone made the skiing pretty damn good. East aspects showed signs of small naturals, expected since the strengthening sun and the days of warm weather created a firm crust for the new snow to sit on. nothing too significant, just a reminder that spring is here and the days to ski the west wall are numbered. Old mans skied fresh and except for small sluffing, the new snow seemed to hold pretty well.
A special shout out to the wolfpack in old mans before me.
I have no idea what people are thinking when the drop in to Old mans, not make one turn and traverse the entire face west to the trees by CDC on a 45 degree angle. I mean thanks for putting yourself out there to check snow stability with the worst ski cut ever, but I hope you have major medical and no kids. Good God. Anyway, another sweet day in EV, looking forward to the next series of storms coming, fingers crossed. Big Saturday tomorrow, watch above you. See ya
Mushroom rock
Good snow year!
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