.... more detailed assessment in link below video.
The link is a bit obscure, pasting contents here:
adkbcski.com wrote:
On Saturday, February 25, 2012 my partner and I decided to ski tour on the Angel Slides. We decided to set the typical skin track that winds it way up the bottom part of wide and into skinny. On the way up, we dug two pits on ” skinny ” which is now the middle of the three Angel slides. After the second pit we decided to not to continue up. At this pit,we observed 2-4feet of beautiful powder, that is/was unfortunately atop a 6-10 inch loosely consolidated cupped ( tg ) snow layer. This 6-10 inch layer had consolidated ” chunks ” of tg snow with air pockets. The 6-10 inch layer was on top of rock/ice. I did a ruts block test and 4 feet layer slid with one ski on the block. After we decided to not ski skinny we decided to check out the new slide thinking that it’s lower angle and terrain features would facilitate safer skiing. Right?
Wrong….
Once on the new slide, we decided to set a conservative skin track through the trees climbers right. At one point, while cutting onto the slide from the trees ( we wanted to dig another pit at an island of trees ), I heard a whoompf, than saw a crack, then the whole left side of the new slide ripped to to the ice/rock layer. The top of the slide was left with a 2 foot crown. Luckily, I had chosen a good up track, one that had terrain features that kept the path of the avalanche away from me. I had a lot of time to turn around and ski back to the trees. My partner was in the safety of the woods, following proper protocol, watching me cross the slope when the avalanche occurred. The avalanche slid, rather slowly, perhaps due to lots of terrain features/traps/ low angle for about 1000 feet or so. The avalanche slide path was just 5 feet from where I stopped, heard the whompff, and turned to the trees.
We were able to easily ski beautiful powder down our conservative up track, to ski the woods below the slides. All in all a memorable day in the backcountry.
Spooky conditions! That's a 23 degree slope! Whoa baby. Good risk mitigation. Love stories in the east that include "we decided not to ski that". Even though plan B turned out to be worse. Kudos for doing it right.
I brought my shovel with me to my favorite BC steeps yesterday.
I had brought it up there before, but because it was strapped to my pack, it was never really used to dig into our runs cuz I'm lazy.
Monday I used it to dig into our meager snow pack to have a look around.
About a foot+ of snow on solid ice base.
Isolating a column, the top crusted layed did not fracture out when I tried prying on it, but did come loose in an irregular dinner plate like piece.
The "testing" I did most of was skier cuts, along with several 'prying' tests at the bottom and top.
I felt foolish bringing the damn thing with me, but felt it was a good idea just in case.
In any event, it was a good experience to have a look and test it out.
Could be more useful after Thursday.
I'm just a beginner BC steeps nerd, but felt very good about my testing.
My skiing on the other hand..... _________________ "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads."- Doc
.... more detailed assessment in link below video.
The link is a bit obscure, pasting contents here:
adkbcski.com wrote:
On Saturday, February 25, 2012 my partner and I decided to ski tour on the Angel Slides. We decided to set the typical skin track that winds it way up the bottom part of wide and into skinny. On the way up, we dug two pits on ” skinny ” which is now the middle of the three Angel slides. After the second pit we decided to not to continue up. At this pit,we observed 2-4feet of beautiful powder, that is/was unfortunately atop a 6-10 inch loosely consolidated cupped ( tg ) snow layer. This 6-10 inch layer had consolidated ” chunks ” of tg snow with air pockets. The 6-10 inch layer was on top of rock/ice. I did a ruts block test and 4 feet layer slid with one ski on the block. After we decided to not ski skinny we decided to check out the new slide thinking that it’s lower angle and terrain features would facilitate safer skiing. Right?
Wrong….
Once on the new slide, we decided to set a conservative skin track through the trees climbers right. At one point, while cutting onto the slide from the trees ( we wanted to dig another pit at an island of trees ), I heard a whoompf, than saw a crack, then the whole left side of the new slide ripped to to the ice/rock layer. The top of the slide was left with a 2 foot crown. Luckily, I had chosen a good up track, one that had terrain features that kept the path of the avalanche away from me. I had a lot of time to turn around and ski back to the trees. My partner was in the safety of the woods, following proper protocol, watching me cross the slope when the avalanche occurred. The avalanche slid, rather slowly, perhaps due to lots of terrain features/traps/ low angle for about 1000 feet or so. The avalanche slide path was just 5 feet from where I stopped, heard the whompff, and turned to the trees.
We were able to easily ski beautiful powder down our conservative up track, to ski the woods below the slides. All in all a memorable day in the backcountry.
Spooky conditions! That's a 23 degree slope! Whoa baby. Good risk mitigation. Love stories in the east that include "we decided not to ski that". Even though plan B turned out to be worse. Kudos for doing it right.
I'm not sure where the angle was measured by the party who triggered the slide but the upper part of Angel where the crown was is much steeper than that in my experience. In the second assessment, Jan had the slope angle at the crown at 37 degrees, much more accurate.
yeah, my brother (on a snowboard) followed me into a drainage in the bowls at smuggs sunday and ended up chest deep with his board in the stream. he got out with minimal icing but it took a while.
Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 1952 Location: VT near Jay Peak
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:00 pm Post subject:
chadh wrote,
Quote:
nice stills cham. tell Louis and scott I said hello. maybe see you guys thursday.
I will pass on the message. We never felt/heard any instability in the snow, like you did, but I was thinking next time I would carry an avy shovel in case someone went in a tree well.
We skied together today again, Dips to Corona and some Orchard, Bullwinkle skiing too. Dip, Bullwinkle was really deep. Later did some Dips to the road, down the ridge.
Another great day, and no weekend crowds to ski it out.
Some photos too _________________ 28 pages of blah, blah, blah. -Grant
Congrats. You've just discovered what [this] forum is all about. -x-eff
...
Tele will always be a coveted art form, and a certain segment will always gravitate towards it.-climbhoser
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