[ed]

Thanks wow. I haven't been out much this year. Is good snow hard to find now? My guess is that everything exposed to sun got very soggy. And maybe everyting got soggy.

I'm thinking cabin run is around 30 degrees, maybe a touch steeper up in the scoured area near the ridge. Maybe my slope angle is not accurate? Did cabin run slide due to wet snow?

I consider the last pic a dangerous slope in questionable conditions but people are always skiing it.

I am suprised (and a bit confused) by the fact that cabin run slid and the the last pic didn't. I assumed this is explained by afternoon warming.

And one more question: was cabin run the location of a night time avy death two years ago, or was that higher up the ridge?

[gwest]

Find your shovel Wow?

(heard from an inside source)

[Joni]

[Joni]

[polelockski]

Your avi's out there made GMA,abc news this sun. morn.
That may bring in a few more thrill seekers.

[Joni]

[wow]

Joni, I'm not under the bed. I wonder where he got that term?

gwest, my shovel wasn't lost but I retrieved it.

ed, the cabin run slope angle is over 35 degrees. Here's a picture from the previous time it slid big for some perspective.


_________________

[ed]

Thanks Joni and wow.

Edited to add: Now I see the bottom pic did slide. Apparently I am poor enough that I can't pay attention.

[Joni]

[shredgar]

FYI the road into & around the Spruces cabin area was plowed sometime between Fri pm & Saturday am. It's a mess & best avoided.
_________________

[wow]

A new cabin is being built in the Mill D North area with the planning poor and the reason for recent plowing of the road.

We ran into maynard g. krebs today and his response to the plowed road is,



Sunday services in the church of the pines was interesting today.

One of the avalanche buried snow shoers has been found (not alive) and the other remained buried this afternoon.

I'll try to update with a TR later.
_________________

[wow]

It has been a hell of a week to say the least. Four people I'm aware of have died in avalanches in the last two days.

It's Sunday and we worship on Sunday's in the Church of the Pines.
Today was no exception.

We got to the bus stop and found the acrimonious maynard g. krebs there also. Fine. He joined the group.



Off the bus and headed up on a very common route already done multiple times this winter. The surprize was, that even though it hasn't snowed for a couple of days, there was only one snow shoe track ahead of us and they didn't make it to the pass.



From the pass we walked the ridge over for the view above. It was obvious, there had been some avalanching but the extent required a closer look. We skied down and went over a sub ridge to have a better look.



Seeing a way up by using the recent avalanche we decided to go up for a closer look and to see how the snow was.



Near the top things got a bit interesting with the traverse through rocks and the little remaining sugar after the slide. We got to the top and had a look into the next drainage, where two snowshoers got buried yesterday. A rescue was in progress ( actually a body recovery) and the entire drainage had been bombed into submission with two cases of double shots used. Multiple avalanches had been triggered but none appeared to run too far or deep, since a large natural cycle had also occured.



We dropped a large cornice, since we didn't have a case of explosives, as a test of stability, even though the slope had naturaled,



with no results. Most of the time this would be reassuring, but it's a big hill and the slides have been running deep. Several ski cuts were done still with no results but the upper was wind boarded and impacts on lower snow with ski cuts, questionable at best. Below the wind board the skiing was a couple of inches over the stryofoam and not bad at all.



We continued the run down canyon, ascended another hill discovering the slope had also avalanched during the storm, climbed and skied with a birds eye view of all the explosive triggered slides and exited.
We were well down the drainage, on the summer road when we discovered this,





which appears to be the result of a very large climax avalanche. Timing on that one is unknown as is the starting zone, with a little checking revealing no information.

I would hope that the cycle is about at an end. Can't say it hasn't been interesting, but enough is enough.
_________________

[gwest]

Should've checked the thread before i left, we were in plowed road fork today. Wasn't too bad of a walk in, and it was an interesting but doable ski out on the snowbank on the side of the road. Snow up there was generally mushy, but still fun to ski. We kept it low angle (20-25) but heard some disconcerting wummphs. Still, no cracks or sliding. Nice day to be out

edited to add: Those final slide pics are quite impressive.

[tele mark]

[peteMimmack]

Surprised I didn't run into someone in Plowed Road Fork, but did hear of a Wow sighting from a snowshoer on Saturday.

That morning I started by helping with the WMC beacon practice. (An unscientific sample of 2 novices felt they could locate faster with a Pieps DSP than a Tracker, but would take either over an analog.) No one wanted to ski afterward, so I was hanging at the Cardiff parking lot when a ski group pulled in and started gearing up. I asked where they were planning to ski in Cardiff and got a "we're not sure, we're from out of town." While I didn't have the photographic proof to dissuade them from that idea, ie


I must have sounded convincing, as they joined me for a tour to the "softer side" of BCC.

Nearing the end of the plowed road, we came upon one of the people building the house. He hopes to be done in January, and is aware that a lot of people are unhappy. OTOH, he said that the owner is a principle at a resort up the road that has demonstrated it's love of construction, so I'm afraid he may want to drive to his new house all winter. Time will tell.

Lots of people were out in the beautiful weather and safe terrain, so we got plenty of info on the good snow that was available. Having flatlanders along, we headed for an easy spot near Dog Lake, and I gave a running commentary on what else was available, should they return on Sunday. I also pointed out what to avoid, since there are a few dicey spots in the drainage. The prime spot on this list was the NE face of Reynolds, made clear by the tracks that some "idiot" must have put on them when the danger was so high. Got a good laugh out of reading Edgar's TR and discovering that the idiot was a friend. Clearly, they did a fine job of testing the slope both before and during the time they skied it, went one at a time, and had a good time.

Sunday was beautiful day, also, and two of us went back to harvest what was left of the hill. Here is what the "couple inches over styrofoam" looked like in action, altho' the north facing aspects had a softer base than that.


We were then seduced by a pretty day, and followed the drainage farther down than we should have, given the hour. Had this nice view on the way back up,

but that meant the sun was low enough that everything was freezing up pretty bad. Whereas Saturday, I was able to ski along the ploughed road like gwest did, even at 5pm, Sunday we were a bit later and fought with enough ice on the way down that we walked as soon as we got back to the plowed section.

All in all, a very nice weekend in the mtns for some of us.