1/9/12 Head pentrometer test in Tweeners
Went out back today with a couple of friends to the mysterious land of East Vail for a reunion. The recent vail eight(see four real) inch storm was a welcome change and a psychological victory for the valley. Far from curing all woes for lack of snow, the day long storm at least made the landscape look like actual winter. Snow in the trees, covering the ground and the majority of the bare spots on the mountain were the biggest benefit from the snowstorm. At least now we know it can snow and whatever horrible pattern of beautiful weather we have endured changed for a little while.
Luckily, we have avoided the fate of resorts like Squaw, which closed outright this past week. Hopefully more snow in store for us on Wendsday but nothing sustained which is what we really need in this mid-season game of snowpack catch up.
Upper scarp area of Tweeners was rock hard with about five inches of new, medium density snow on it. There were a couple other tracks and we noticed no signficant sluffing from their turns. The gullies in Benchie had evidence of natural new snow sluffs sometime during or after the storm that ran to the first bench after the first cliffs. Nothing significant, not really that much new snow to make it so. Most of Benchmark looks like a mini-evergreen forest and is unskiable in the areas that ran.
The choke in Tweeners is a three-foot wide frozen bush slide on to a frozen scraped out track. My attempt to hop the bush and ditch speed to skier’s right was met with acceleration out to the skier’s right side of the exit, towards the fresh snow next to the trees. I made the move to test the density change in the snow with my head three different times.
As I tumbled through snow and bushes, I had time to reflect on an early season that has been filled with too much time on groomers and my bike and not nearly enough time in the backcountry on skis, as evidenced by my triple lindy. I stopped rotating and took the mental inventory that is required after a good, meaty fall. Everything intact and working. Skied toward the sound of laughter which led me to my ski partners. Jeremy let me know he has it all on Go Pro. You Tube gold. I don’t fall often any more, a testament to my I’m-old, if I’m upside down it’s a problem, not fun, style of skiing. When it does happen, it is a sight to see.
The middle of Benchie drainage skier’s right after Tweeners in the fields skied well, actual shin/knee deep powder turns in mostly consolidated fresh snow. There were spots where the skis sank and dove, but had I had some enjoyable turns through the middle.
Had to walk out around the corner of the west face that leads to the lower traverse out, but no more than five minutes of hoofing it.
We we able to pick our way down the lower aspen glades with coverage minimal and the snow punchy. We stayed on skis all the way out to the water tank, which was a bonus. Definite survival skiing down low but worth it to actually get to try out the AK JJ’s on something other than groomers.
Snowpack didn’t change at all with the new snow. Loose facets and rounds still make up the majority of the pack. New snow aheared well to the hard pack underneath, surprisingly. Cut the skier’s top right middle on my entrance to Tweeners to see if there was any energy, but nothing popped.
Vail resort deals well with the low snow does a masterful job of moving snow around to make the skiing good as it can be. East Vail really highlights just how low we really are. The middle of Benchie is two feet short of being viable and the run out is arduous. Be careful out there.
Happy New Year 1/2/12
2011 is done and not a moment too soon. Not much changed the first few days of 2012, and the outlook for snow in the near future isn’t very good. The ridge of high pressure is entrenched and continues to push everything north while we languish in biking weather. Pretty ironic that the places in the mid-west that I learned to ski are having 12 inch reports.
Pulled out the bike again, sad state of affairs on the first day of 2012. As the doomsdayers begin to say the sky isn’t gonna fall, wanderlust begins to set in. Admittedly, I’ve been looking at the places that have snow. Skiers and riders are nomadic and will travel where the snow is. EVI is no exception.
We at EVI aren’t buying the doomsday crap and the snow will come when it comes. Like the honey badger, mother nature doesn’t give a shit. Frankly its a good thing we as humans can’t predict or control the weather(i.e screw it up worse), so playing the game day by day, year by year is part of being a snow slider.
I have been paying attention to the huge pack up north and am mulling over ideas for trips for later in the season. I have a couple contacts in the heli world and would able to be put together a group or two for the Juneau Haines area in April. If anyone would be interested in heading to AK in April for a couple weeks, please let us know by e-mailing us or calling 970-331-5113. I’ll keep an eye on AK over the next month and plan accordingly.
We have a ways to go before we cry uncle here in the valley, but the natives are most definitely restless. Riding my bike under the peaks only exacerbates the jones. Whatever it takes, I plan on getting some snow this year.
I have no backcountry report, the snow pack is still what it is and I have no urge to tweak a knee in the mank. Stay strong readers and we’ll see you on the other side of the sunny pugatory.
Mushroom bowls 12/27-12/28
With the holiday crowds closing in, I skinned my way up to Mushie two days in a row to check out the snow on both the West and North aspects in the gladed 20-30 degree terrain for something to do. The ridge top had variable areas of 10 cm wind board on facets to soft wind blown crust over, you geussed it, more facets, to dirt patches. The first five upper low angle turns off the ridgeline were decent, fresh turns on stale cake. As the pitches steepened and rolled toward the cliff band that runs in the middle of Mushroom Bowl, the skiing turned to a barely covered nightmare of no more than 60 cms of 2mm facets on rocks and fallen trees. The best way to describe a weighted ski turn two thirds of the way down is hitting a sandcastle with a baseball bat. The snow looses cohesion, disintegrates under the weight and the facets run to the dirt in a glittering hiss below the turn. A frightening prospect for a basal layer for our snow pack when (think positive) our weather cycle does turn back to snow.
If we continue to get small amounts of snow with long periods of calm weather in between, then avalanche wise it’s really no problem, it will just be a low tide year for the central mountains like most of AK’s mountains had last year. However, if we do see an averaging out of the snowfall amounts in the last two thirds of the season, then I have to imagine we will have a signifigant avalanche cycle with the first large dump. With the depth of snow in EV ranging from dirt to sixty cm of loose facets that on both West and North aspects, a two foot dump would rip to the ground with little effort with any kind of rapid loading of typical cold low density mid-winter snow on such a weakly bonded base layer. Our best hope is precip to come in warm and wet and alot of it. Or a storm comes in with such rapid loading that EV flushes itself out naturally overnight and cleans out what has become a forgettable early season mess on all aspects.
Something else to check out. Noaa has an interesting report on their website on the effect La Nina will have on Colorado weather for the rest of the winter. Much of it is super technical, but it is interesting to read the atmospheric science based precipitation predictions for the next six months. I won’t ruin it for you, check it out and draw your own conclusions.
It was a relief to get out into Mushie and skin far far away from the madnesss happening with the holidays in Vail. Just passing Two Elk helped my personal holiday decompression. The lack of sno, however trying, fails to make the skin up to the top of Benchie any less beautiful. The black, grey and white spattered Gore range, gaunt and bare, stretched into a sky littered with purple and grey clouds streaming in from the Northwest. A few tendrils of snow stretched down to touch the very tops of the Gore Range, but the wisps were wishful thinking for a range that is now feet away from average. I enjoyed standing on the top of Benchie again, wind howling and no one around. Pretty much ski hiked the last two thirds of the run both days to the road, but I enjoyed the taste of the EV experience that I have, admittedly, taken for granted over the last fourteen years.
12/20 Hey Ullr, we’re f*****g waiting…
Well….
What can we say here at EVI, except what a difference a year makes. The Christmas crush is on here at Vail and I truly feel for our VA worker bees at the moment. With limited terrain to operate with and a full Christmas crowd they have their hands full, good luck to the folks in the trenches.
EVI is supposed to be about all things East Vail. Honestly at the moment, there is nothing to report on because skiing anywhere out there isn’t worth it. We are in an early season powder hibernation with plenty of sunny high pressure dominating our weather while the Pineapple Express soars northward and pounds B.C and AK. There have been a few reported defectors I know of that have bolted north. Cowards. Most of us are here for the long haul, to ride it out and wait for the weather shift in a long season to come. Luckily, we are better off than Tahoe and parts of Europe, and are open. We all (myself included) need keep that in mind and be grateful for the little things while waiting for the faucet to turn on.
I refuse to bring out the bike again (out of principle) and will be taking a break from the Christmas skiercross on Vail Mountain. I’m considering a walk into the Gore on Wed to check out the snow pack, but it’s obvious the snow is lacking the pack at the moment. The little settled storm snow on top of loose facets of various size and shape, brimming with surface hoar doesn’t bode well for the next snow load. Danger is said to be moderate, and I’m sure that there a areas of wind drifted slabby old storm snow that could pop and drag you for a rocky ride, but my concern is looking forward, as there is no avalanche danger on my couch where I will be untill conditions drastically improve. Posted a new HP (hard pack) video from last spring, I’m sure you all can identify with the sound of edges on fresh, frozen groomed. Good fun, scary fast.
Do what you can out there people. Wash your car, tune up the race skis, start painting you house, whatever it takes. Sacrifice a virgin? Might be a little early for human sacrifice, we’re pow addicts not monsters right? Plus it’s the Vail valley, so good luck with that… Merry Christmas all, ask Santa for a three footer if you get a chance…
Old Man’s 11/7/11
Hey all,
Headed out into the bluebird Wendsday afternoon, eager to escape the groomed confines of early season Vail. I decided to head to the emptiness of EV. I skinned up Sourdough and headed past Two Elk, where the workers were just starting to pull out the picnic tables from the stacks. The back was empty and parts of the West Wall sat pasted an early season brown and white. Up the Silk Road I went and headed out the back door route to Old Mans’. It was nice to get out and stand on top of the ridge and take in the expanse of EV once again, though it looked vastly different than the last time I stood on the ridge. The prominent cliff band off the right side Old Mans’ entrance, which disappeared some time in January last year, was in full view now. At present it lies just below the ridge crest, but after a half season of regular snow load, the cliff band is at least thirty to forty feet below the entrance. The growth of the scarp above the cliff band is a true testement to the amount of snow transport that occurs at this spot due to the prevailing Westerly winds. Rocky tiers, cliffs and shrubs belie what was a smooth, fast entrance crowned by a massive cornice eight months ago.
I picked my way through the entrance and dove between rocky ledges and shrubbery, taking time to cut various pillowed pockets between rockbands. These small wind drifted areas provide good test spots for stability. There was little reactivity, and the old settled storm snow sitting on the usual layer of larger loose “October” facets skied like two feet of baking soda feeling unconsolidated and, of course, thin.
I skied cautiously to the flats and headed out to the highway instead of braving the thin cross cut over to the bus stop. I linked super slow pow turns in the trees on my way down, working my way past the half buried stumps and downed trees toward the highway. More snow than I thought, but two feet away from glory… Paitence friends and think snow.
11/30/2011 Uniquely Uneva
Still in the midst of the waiting game, Wednesday November, 30th was the perfect opportunity to dust the cob webs off the ‘ol Avi gear and put the “Avalanche Thinking Hat” back on to go poke around in the Vail Pass Backcountry.
The week was full of sunshine and moderate temps that kept the somewhat minimal “snow pack” at a danger scale of Low or Level-1 on NW-S aspects below treeline up to the peaks. Aspects near and above treeline facing N-SE were rated as Moderate, or Level 2. Wednesday afternoon was a true bluebird day, mid thirties on the mercury, 34% humidity and 5-10 mph winds out of the west at 10,600 ft. All signs pointed to Uneva as a first good “tour” of the season, with relatively safe conditions and a chance to hunt down some ski-able powder.
Starting out at the Vail Pass Winter Rec Area, sets of perfect powder turns were already visible up on the SW facing aspect of the drainage just South of the Uneva bowl. A well established skin track already set on Corral Creek Trail made it very nice not to have to break trail, but here and there to keep in tune with “Avi-Thinking”, it’s really important to me to get out of the grooves and break some trail of my own, to gather info and tune into the signals and Red-Flag warnings the ascending trek and snow pack can scream or whisper at me… i.e; whoomphing, collapsing, cracking and sinking up to the top boot buckles. Not to mention poking into the snow pack to gather data on depth and what kinds of hazards are lurking under the deceiving white surface of snow. There are still some buried roots/downed logs, “Shark Fins” (buried rocks) just waiting for an unsuspecting rider to viciously end their season early… Right now the data is a mixed bag of sun drenched areas with zero snow up to two and a half foot deep drifts and everything in between, so be very careful on the way down!
Each step of the trek through the old fire-scarred area just South of Uneva up into the 30 degree sloped gully produced incredible views that improved with each lunge upward. Soon, treeline was well below and Panoramic views of the Ten-Mile and Sawatch Ranges started to peak out in all directions. The ridge-top was so scoured by 20-30 mph wind gusts that boot packing was the only remaining option of ascent. As I traversed north to the ridge-line that lay south of Uneva Peak, it was obvious that the prevailing west winds have been working hard to load the easterly aspects with as much faceted snow as possible. This wind loading is burying the “White Dragons” of the past record-breaking 2010-2011 winter season and hiding potentially very deadly scenarios for our upcoming season. Just stick that under your Avy-Savy-Hats and save it for later on this winter…
There was the first “Red-Flag” of the Tour! The Next was a 40-60 meter long crack that had shot up-slope from where a bunch of dog tracks danced in circles out on the wind loaded cornice. The crack measured a fist and a half to two fists wide creating a semi-truck wide cornice that would have no doubt given that pooch a First-Class ride to a summit county demise on the east side of the ridge. The third and final “Red-Flag’ of the day was my misstep from the scoured solid earth of the ridge into a thigh deep hole just short of the previously mentioned cornice. What a way to emphasize the oldest Avi-Traveling rule in the book… never walk out onto a cornice! That sixty pound dog was lucky, just another 100 lbs. and a few more of those deep steps out onto no-no-land and you’ve got the human factor that so famously causes deadly avalanches.
With all the data and info fresh in my head, “Red-Flags” resonating their priceless messages and the final ascent to the 12,522ft peak that is Uneva, I took the time to sit down and reflect on my journey to the summit. All of the little details and warnings add up to one of the most important decisions of the tour; how and where to descend. I opted for the SW facing shoulder of Uneva north of the Cirque, stuck to the 30 degree and fewer pitches and stayed clear of the rock features that create the chutes. Half traversing, half dropping into steeper zones, navigating the terrain was a mix of sun baked crust, facet filled depressions and full-on powder near and below treeline. Sticking to the shaded sides of the trees and the uphill side of the drainage that flows out of the Uneva Basin, I quickly descended to the natural downhill ramp that leads back to corral creak trail, the car, safety, a hot meal, and not to mention cold beers with good friends.
Not a bad first tour of the season! Being able to take advantage of the chance to dust off the Avi-thinking dust and cobwebs, the opportunity to snap shots of the surrounding mountains and scenery are what makes living and riding in the Vail Valley backcountry so rewarding and enjoyable!
Snowbird Video Contest
Its December and there’s finally snow on the ground in Vail. A classic Vail 9″…aka, more like 6, but hey, we’re not complaining. Haven’t ventured out to the chutes just yet, but we did have time to enter our 2012 Preview video in the “Local Hero” contest going on over at the Snowbird Facebook page. The first round winners are chosen by fan votes, so we’re calling on our readers to help us out. Just click the link below, vote for us, and hope we win. If we make it all the way, there might be some North Face swag give-aways for our Facebook / blog readers!
Click Here to Vote
Sunset Over EV
Taken from Uneva Peak, this shot was submitted from one of our FB friends Lucas. Thanks! A beautiful view and with December coming, we’re staying positive for snow!
2012 Season Preview
New video is live! Some of our favorite hits from last year and a few bits footage left on the cutting room floor. Big air, cliff drops, deep pow, and tight trees…all the usual fare from us. We put this up to get psyched for the 2012 season…here’s to hoping it’s a lot like last year! The Black Keys provide the sounds.
Weather Forecast
Coming at ya! Absolutely pouring down rain here in Tacoma, WA. Should be coming your way in Colorado over the next few days. Something you all should know about me, pretty much whenever I fly into Denver or drive back up from the airport…there is a huge snow storm. Last time I can remember, we were in the last car over Vail pass for the night and really shouldn’t have been allowed to proceed. Couldn’t see a damn thing! The next morning was 13in. of light and fluffy pow with the city of Denver trapped on the other side of the pass in summit county for the whole morning. So, the answer is yes, I will start accepting payment if you are fiendin’ for some powder and want me to fly somewhere.
Friends…
East Vail Institute 