Home > Trip Reports > Dec 5 Stone Man Couloir, Mt Baker F.D.D.

Dec 5 Stone Man Couloir, Mt Baker F.D.D.

12/15/10
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
17276
29
Posted by ryanl on 12/6/10 11:43am
Going out on a limb and claiming a First Dog Descent on this. Freaking awesome is the best description that comes to mind. Anybody else ever taken or seen a pooch up there?

Thanks to Forest's post last week a few of us left seattle early sunday morning in search of non-wind affected snow.

All of us being relatively clueless with the Baker backcountry we ended up skiing down to Hayes lake and going up and over high on  Mazama Dome. Neither in person nor on a map do Mazama Dome and Mt Herman look alike. Then it was connect the tracks up Herman to the couloir. Pretty skied out, but the chalky powder was a real treat. Thanks Forest for putting this on the radar. My only regret is that I didn't film Gus laying tracks.









Now if this isn't a perfect example of" YOU POST A TR and people are gonna go to that area".... then I don't know what is.

Whose first for "First Descent with a hamster in my pocket"


author=ryanl link=topic=18333.msg77623#msg77623 date=1291693380]
Pretty skied out...


  :D Sorry. The emoticon is straight up for Muscawulf.

I wouldn't give that hamster much respect because pockets are aid. Might as well ride a gondola. Now if the hamster goes up and down on his own, that's epic.


1) Post TR about cool place
2) People show up and rally it
3) People complain about how many BC'rs are hitting their spot...

hmmmm....

whiners gonna whine.
haters gonna hate.
Dogs gonna shit in the skin track.


Now back to your regularly scheduled TR's from hiking inside ski area boundaries.





author=alecapone link=topic=18333.msg77659#msg77659 date=1291742197]
I wouldn't give that hamster much respect because pockets are aid. Might as well ride a gondola. Now if the hamster goes up and down on his own, that's epic.


True , but the hamster is risking a lot even in somebodies pocket. The skier could hip check and squash said hamster.What's the difference between the risks a hamster takes riding in a skiers pocket and a Nascar driver? Same IMHO.

Hamsters and gerbils are different! Hamsters are carried in your pocket... gerbils are carried elsewhere.
Being TAY's Chief Etiquette Officer is proving to be a full time job with all you nincompoops.


You are right. I was being elitist.

As long as the hamsters are enjoying themselves more power to them.

.....

I would have to say if any dog's paws has seen the stone man, it would probbaly be that bad ass bitch goldie who poached the CJ couloir last winter. I know she was in the baker area for a few days.

author=alecapone link=topic=18333.msg77692#msg77692 date=1291752447]

I would have to say if any dog's paws has seen the stone man, it would probably be that bad ass bitch goldie who poached the CJ couloir last winter. I know she was in the baker area for a few days.

CJ couloir????= Cascade Pass CJ couloir??? if so= Park land....no bow wows allowed.
I just think it's nice the OP could take his dog touring with him ( and any other species) as if the ALPS project succeeds in getting Highway 20 area turned into Park then another area where interspecies powder touring will no longer be available.

OP:  Sweet trip!

author=Scotsman link=topic=18333.msg77673#msg77673 date=1291745569]
True , but the hamster is risking a lot even in somebodies pocket. The skier could hip check and squash said hamster.What's the difference between the risks a hamster takes riding in a skiers pocket and a Nascar driver? Same IMHO.

Scotsman, are you implying Nascar is a sport?

author=trees4me link=topic=18333.msg77696#msg77696 date=1291755698]
OP:  Sweet trip!
Scotsman, are you implying Nascar is a sport?



No I think I was implying it was similar to hamster racing.

author=tim_place link=topic=18333.msg77723#msg77723 date=1291784771]
Oh, God, how we pray for more snow at Snoqualmie!!


Tim , how come you B'hammers don't post more trip reports? I for one would love to hear about some more of the choice lines up there.

author=Scotsman link=topic=18333.msg77728#msg77728 date=1291785947]
Tim , how come you B'hammers don't post more trip reports?


Actually that's Bellinghamsters.  Meaning there have been many hamster descents of Stone Man.

Because there is nothing to write about. Slack-country gets tracked out by 10 Am (one would have to leave Seattle by 4 Am to make it)  back country is north-facing and always wind loaded, extremely dangerous, road sucks, there is no good beer anywhere, women are not pretty, man smell bad and some speak funny, and we can't write (I paid ghost-writer a lot of money for this short comment)

I was touring up in this area today and it was a little scary, we decided to bail after finding lots of nasty windslab around on SE facing aspects. As we left for the day it was sleeting/graupeling hard and the wind was strong out of the S at high elevation.

Lander is jealous.

author=pred link=topic=18333.msg77759#msg77759 date=1291830962]
Because there is nothing to write about. Slack-country gets tracked out by 10 Am (one would have to leave Seattle by 4 Am to make it)  back country is north-facing and always wind loaded, extremely dangerous, road sucks, there is no good beer anywhere, women are not pretty, man smell bad and some speak funny, and we can't write (I paid ghost-writer a lot of money for this short comment)

Claim that women are not pretty appears suspicious. This may be decoy post. Heading north to investigate. Begin preparations for full on siege. Over.

author=bobS link=topic=18333.msg77789#msg77789 date=1291844446]
Claim that women are not pretty appears suspicious. This may be decoy post. Heading north to investigate. Begin preparations for full on siege. Over.


I think you are right. ;D
My latest theory= Silas skis with Tim Place and knows all his secret stashes in B'hmaster zone but is banned from posting TR's under penalty of banishment ( Blueberry Chutes are allowed as a giveway) and so he posts about all the other areas so everybody will go there and his reward from B'Hamsters for luring TAYers to those areas is he gets shown primo powder stashes up there. It's a conspiracy and Silas is at the sharp end of it.

We don't show Silas, either.

Mark

author=markharf link=topic=18333.msg77806#msg77806 date=1291850265]
We don't show Silas, either.
Mark


;D Funny.
but it does illustrate to those that feel posting TR's is a TAY community service that others may feel different  when it affects them. We're all selfish aren't we.?

for what it's worth, the only reason i posted anything was because i liked skiing with Gus and wanted to get him some attention. I couldn't care less about secret stashes and local treasures. If something is worth skiing it's worth skiing, regardless of how many times it's been skied. That's just my opinion of course. But my memory and sense of direction are so bad that every time out is a first descent anyway.....

author=ryanl link=topic=18333.msg77811#msg77811 date=1291853730]
... But my memory and sense of direction are so bad that every time out is a first descent anyway.....


That's funny, Ryan ;D
I think I may be picking up the same affliction ::)


author=Scotsman link=topic=18333.msg77807#msg77807 date=1291851067]
;D Funny.
but it does illustrate to those that feel posting TR's is a TAY community service that others may feel different  when it affects them. We're all selfish aren't we.?


What it illustrates depends on whether you take what I said seriously.  Which, FWIW, I would advise you not to.

It snows enough hereabouts so that every time I visit a particular spot everything has changed drastically since the last time, rendering each visit fresh and full of surprises. Mostly I don't care who precedes me, who accompanies, or who follows....and anyone who likes is welcome to cross my tracks as well.  It'll all be gone by next weekend, replaced by a canvas even more remarkable. 

enjoy,

Mark

If we're willing to walk a little farther than the last skier, you'll have first tracks every time. Stone Man's is hardly off the radar due to visibility and proximity, even though it's not a line that gets skiied every day. Forest's idea to go get it this time of year was a good choice, the line doesn't get skiied all the time because it's often not a safe choice. When a "new" route gets publicized, it doesn't hurt to share other info about it, like this: http://www.nwac.us/media/uploads/documents/accidents/2005_2006/Mt_Hermann_Fatality_04_18_06.pdf
That chute is kind of the perfect storm of avie hazards, and deserves careful consideration and respect.

Stone man is the new Slot? Ditto on timing it right, it get trickier from here.

author=Ken M link=topic=18333.msg77860#msg77860 date=1291911346]
If we're willing to walk a little farther than the last skier, you'll have first tracks every time. Stone Man's is hardly off the radar due to visibility and proximity, even though it's not a line that gets skiied every day. Forest's idea to go get it this time of year was a good choice, the line doesn't get skiied all the time because it's often not a safe choice. When a "new" route gets publicized, it doesn't hurt to share other info about it, like this: http://www.nwac.us/media/uploads/documents/accidents/2005_2006/Mt_Hermann_Fatality_04_18_06.pdf
That chute is kind of the perfect storm of avie hazards, and deserves careful consideration and respect.


Well said Ken -

I well recall that death on Stoneman a couple years back in large part because conditions that day seemed prett damn normal as in "some new, not to much, a bit of time for it to settle, possibility of avi's very slim".    It was really, really surprising.

So much terrain gets skied around the Baker front country in all conditions with very, very few accidents it's easy to get in the mindset that it's just not going to happen.

  there is no good beer anywhere, women are not pretty,


Now I know this is a decoy:  I have personally drank many a fine beer at "The Shrine"; I have a secret crush on one of the waitresses; and the more beer I drink, the prettier she gets.  Now if that doesn't spell out good skiing nearby, I don't know how else to convince you...

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