January 2, 2010, Heather Ridge, WA
1/2/10
WA Stevens Pass
2572
3
Good fun and interesting snow up on Heather ridge. Not super stable, but conservative routes were pretty nice.
The end of the day provided a good view of a big slab release on Happy face, adjacent to a line of fresh tracks. Not sure if it was expert route finding and snow analysis or luck, but way to survive!
Photos are here:
http://orographicdelight.blogspot.com/2010/01/heather-ridge-jan-2-2010.html
I tried to upload a snow pit video, but the trip documentarian has upgraded to large format HD, which is great to watch and painful for uploading. I gave up after a couple hours....
The end of the day provided a good view of a big slab release on Happy face, adjacent to a line of fresh tracks. Not sure if it was expert route finding and snow analysis or luck, but way to survive!
Photos are here:
http://orographicdelight.blogspot.com/2010/01/heather-ridge-jan-2-2010.html
I tried to upload a snow pit video, but the trip documentarian has upgraded to large format HD, which is great to watch and painful for uploading. I gave up after a couple hours....
Good pic. I was up there early last year after a cycle and you could have taken the same shot, it was the exact same location and about a 2-ft crown.
Looks like the skiers chose wisely, I wonder if they remote triggered it...? The crown is located at a slope break that is just a few degrees steeper and with similar anchors to where the ski tracks are.
Looks like the skiers chose wisely, I wonder if they remote triggered it...? The crown is located at a slope break that is just a few degrees steeper and with similar anchors to where the ski tracks are.
author=Woz link=topic=15090.msg63129#msg63129 date=1262898894]
The end of the day provided a good view of a big slab release on Happy face, adjacent to a line of fresh tracks. Not sure if it was expert route finding and snow analysis or luck, but way to survive!
Hey, thanks for the photo! Mine line started farthest lookers right.
I'd say mostly route finding and analysis... but luck probably played a bigger part then I would like. We did not trigger the slide. It was there in the am. It's release did seem to help stablize that slope and why we chose that route. Previous wind direction also semed to play a big factor.... we also got a bunch of slope testers to follow our skin track up and give it a go first... Thanks guys!
Your photo shows the top of Heather point and its SE face. Happy Face is on the North side and runs down to a flat open basin that the crest trail runs through. Looking at the lower half of the run from the basin there is a group of rock outcrops that can look like a Happy Face when filled in on a big snow year. I first skied it about 30 years ago and gave it the name that has stuck at least with Stevens locals. Both the face you show and Happy Face are prone to being wind swept and or wind loaded and active.
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