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Tatoosh Tax Day

4/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3955
10
Posted by Gary Vogt on 4/15/09 10:58am
After remaining closed Tuesday for "facility problems", Paradise opened today a bit after 9, despite the water problem not being fixed.  Blue sky & flocked trees on the drive up seemed to promise one more day of powder.  Ed & I broke trail up the standard Tatoosh route in about 12" of sticky semi-cement.  The only real powder was directly under north aspect trees.  Clouds & fog rolled in about 11AM and stayed for the rest of the day with a few flurries by mid-afternoon.   Pretty tricky & heavy going on the descent, not too bad if you kept your speed up, but skis tended to dive and bog down with too sharp a turn.  Mostly supportive sun or rain crust a few inches down on western aspects below 5000', where we set off lots of donuts.  Otherwise, we saw no signs of slides or instability.

Day 58 for me this season, with about 310 total miles & 85K vf.  Not bad for a tele-geezer with no lift days, but probably 20% below my recent figures for this time of year.  We could hear the plows about two-thirds of the way down the Valley Road.  I'd expect they may be starting out toward Reflection Lake by this weekend.
That's an average of 5.345 miles and 1,465.517 VF per day.
Good work Gary but as your self-appointed personal statistician, I would like to see the VF average increased in the coming months. ;)

To really apppreciate what Gary does one needs to hang with him on one of those Steven's ridge days. The day Jeff and I went we were drooling over the steepies and Gary was trying to pull us farther down the ridge towards Box canyon. He's now trying to talk me into a circumavgation of Cowlitz rocks.

author=Scotsman link=topic=13025.msg54315#msg54315 date=1239850229]
...as your self-appointed personal statistician, I would like to see the VF average increased in the coming months. ;)


Thanks for the precision, Scotty; I'm working on it...   ::)   I'm sure you know getting old ain't for sissies, but sometimes I wish I'd retired near a ski area where I could skin up to my heart's content & ride the lift down when my back & knees give out... :D

Ha :D that's great Gary, you obviously love to tour.
I was just thinking more about it and  average miles vrs  average vertical skied is a fairly interesting statistic.
I tend to try to minimize the miles and maximize the vertical and others the opposite.

I think I'm going to start keeping track of it like you and see where the numbers come out.
We can be like baseball players have have our own" batting" statistics for the season.

It could be rather fun to see some regional, as well as wayward, stats like that.  And then, from that, how could you not assemble an All Star team?  But what would the catagories be?  Certainly, 'most days' is in.  And, of course, 'most vertical'.  I should think also, 'most vertical per mile traveled'.  Baseball has a lot of catagories for stats, but I'm guessing we wouldn't want to count the 'number of bluebird days you had chardonnay with lunch and forgot where you left your skins'.

What I really want to know is, would the Cascade Corns play the Sierra Sluffers?

After guesstimating any of my stats, I couldn't even apply for waterboy

author=Scotsman link=topic=13025.msg54324#msg54324 date=1239858232]
Ha :D that's great Gary, you obviously love to tour.
I was just thinking more about it and  average miles vrs  average vertical skied is a fairly interesting statistic.
I tend to try to minimize the miles and maximize the vertical and others the opposite.

I think I'm going to start keeping track of it like you and see where the numbers come out.
We can be like baseball players have have our own" batting" statistics for the season.


As another geezer, I would guess I'm pretty close to Gary in terms of days; I have no idea of vertical or miles, but as I get older I enjoy longer tours  and XC skiing (8-12 miles depending on snow and weather) much more than yo-yoing--I like skiing down & making turns but actually can stand only a little lift served and only occasional yo-yoing.  My reason is I like to see the scenery and landscape change and the cheap thrill of short-run down on moderate slopes is now boring and a fall on steep slopes could be bad for my bad back which is a result, in part at least, of multiple falls on many steep slopes :-).  Now, if only I had the skill and stamina of our erstwhile colleagues who summit MR and ski down in a day ... that would be the best of worlds [but that will never happen for me--probably a good thing cuz I hate crevasses].

I dunno about stats ,I wouldn't want to get traded to another mountain!

author=vogtski link=topic=13025.msg54312#msg54312 date=1239847099]
After remaining closed Tuesday for "facility problems",
Drove all the way out there to find this one out >:( >:( >:(

author=vogtski link=topic=13025.msg54312#msg54312 date=1239847099]
We could hear the plows about two-thirds of the way down the Valley Road.  I'd expect they may be starting out toward Reflection Lake by this weekend.


Wanted to correct this mistaken info, after a closer look today on the way to Cowlitz Rocks.   The plowing has only just reached the base of Mazama Ridge.  It's easy to escape the 10-20' deep snow trench either just before or just beyond the normal uptrack route near the 4th crossing bridge.  The bulldozers & plows were starting to clear the picnic area below the VC, so the Reflection Lk road should still be skiable for a couple more weeks.

author=Scotsman link=topic=13025.msg54324#msg54324 date=1239858232]
I think I'm going to start keeping track of it like you and see where the numbers come out.
We can be like baseball players have have our own" batting" statistics for the season.


The ERA stat is a no brainer. 
The women are in a "Leauge of Their Own"
Teleskichicka is still on the DL
Snow pit evaluation will be done in the "Dugout"

I'm sure I would be traded for a skier to be nick-named later.

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tatoosh-tax-day
Gary Vogt
2009-04-15 17:58:19