Home > Trip Reports > March 4, 2011, Funnelator, White Pine Creek Road

March 4, 2011, Funnelator, White Pine Creek Road

3/4/11
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Posted by ryanl on 3/5/11 6:17am
Given the uncertainty of conditions,  Eric and I went looking for trees and fall line with a NW aspect yesterday.  We headed east thinking weather and conditions might be better east of the crest. Didn't want anything too committing or too high. Somewhere along highway 2 we decided to take a look at  a route I've never heard of before. It's called the Funnelator.  Pete met us at the Knife shop just down road from White Pine Creek, and the three of us piled into Eric's car hoping the road had been plowed. No such luck. We made it about a mile and parked at the first fork in the road.

Despite the tire ruts, snow on the road was boot deep with a soft under layer. Arduous travel.  Here was our first look at the line.

http://vimeo.com/20681185

We ultimately decided to ascend and descend the trees looker's left of the highpoint. Snow was deep, but remarkably stable. There was evidence of recent avalanche activity, with the obvious gullies filled with debris. Probably from a few days ago, as there was a light dusting on top.

Looking up from about midway:



And down from the same spot:



We skinned up on top of the hardened debris where possible and ducked back into the trees when we reached the final steepish headwall. Snow was very deep and light. Booting was not an option and skinning was challenging to say the least. Eric and I were both worked by the time we topped out around 6500'

2 dudes not really sure about anything:

http://vimeo.com/20681509

Didn't take any photos or vids on the way down. We skied the top 300' or so very conservatively, ski cutting and picking our lines carefully. Nothing noteworthy moved. After that we skied without stopping untracked pow through rolling trees for about 3000+'

Snow began to fall as we reached the car, but i bet our track is still in place if anyone wants to profit......
Is this the shot that's also referred to as The Swath?  Cool looking run!

yeah it looks like the swath (aka).  looks like way more trees showing than last year...

thanks for the post!

Sure, the swath. I was going off E$. Did a google search and came up with this:

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/782692/TR_White_Pine_Peak_North_Chute

i think that guy Rat knows a thing or two about that area ;-)

yeah, it only takes 1 guy on the internet calling it something for it to stick... 

Irregardless it's a great run!

Good job. 

Did you go into the knife shop?  I've always talked about getting some sort of custom-made katana from that place, but have never followed through...

Swath, lawnmower, funnelator. There is never just one name for anything near Stevens pass.

That is a nice long north facing shot though. Thanks for the report.  tried to get a look at the coverage in it on the way home that day but the snow was falling to heavy by then.

I often think that for a custom knife store, his custom sign is kind of cheesy. It's a big wooden knife! I'd like to see a nice big 12' one ton metal sword that could chop your car in half should it fall.

Saw a huge crown from Hwy 2  in Chiwakum Cirque nearly half the width of the cirque from a slide that reportedly occured that day. Some big natural slides recently.

author=Pete_H link=topic=20003.msg84836#msg84836 date=1299445301]
Saw a huge crown from Hwy 2  in Chiwakum Cirque nearly half the width of the cirque from a slide that reportedly occured that day. Some big natural slides recently.


That goes on quite a few years. Large slabs in that cirque are not at all uncommon. The ones I've seen have been 6' to 10' crowns. It appears to get cross-loaded heavily by winds coming down White Pine Creek. The cross-loading means areas of deep and shallow snowpack, and that means faceting in the colder months. Some of the slabs are classic full depth slides running on depth hoar. (You can tell this because when the slides release they leave little snowpack.)

author=garyabrill link=topic=20003.msg84854#msg84854 date=1299465874]
That goes on quite a few years. Large slabs in that cirque are not at all uncommon. The ones I've seen have been 6' to 10' crowns. It appears to get cross-loaded heavily by winds coming down White Pine Creek. The cross-loading means areas of deep and shallow snowpack, and that means faceting in the colder months. Some of the slabs are classic full depth slides running on depth hoar. (You can tell this because when the slides release they leave little snowpack.)


Saw that crown today.  Haven't seen it before in 10 years of driving over.  We assumed it was skier triggered.  Hoped it was natural.  Didn't see anything on Jim Hill, Rock, or Howard (from us2).  Did see some south facing activity off of Lichtenburg but that's pretty common.  That crown off "Chiwaukum Cirque" was pretty astonishing.

author=wickstad link=topic=20003.msg84863#msg84863 date=1299469014]
Saw that crown today.  Haven't seen it before in 10 years of driving over.  We assumed it was skier triggered.  Hoped it was natural.  Didn't see anything on Jim Hill, Rock, or Howard (from us2).  Did see some south facing activity off of Lichtenburg but that's pretty common.  That crown off "Chiwaukum Cirque" was pretty astonishing.


After seeing it today from the Hwy, as well, we wondered if we might see the same thing on the big north slope of Jim Hill when viewed from Arrowhead.  Nothing over there except some turns left by folks having skied it safely.  On the SE slope of Pt 5909 in the foreground we saw an approximately 2 foot deep crown that extended a couple hundred feet across that slope just below the high point.  This one drains in a wide path into Whitepine Creek and looks like it would be an inviting ski in optimal SE facing conditions.  Probably not even 35 degrees in the start zone.

A couple pics of it in this link:
http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7989719

author=John_Morrow link=topic=20003.msg84864#msg84864 date=1299469747]
After seeing it today from the Hwy, as well, we wondered if we might see the same thing on the big north slope of Jim Hill when viewed from Arrowhead.  Nothing over there except some turns left by folks having skied it safely.  On the SE slope of Pt 5909 in the foreground we saw an approximately 2 foot deep crown that extended a couple hundred feet across that slope just below the high point.  This one drains in a wide path into Whitepine Creek and looks like it would be an inviting ski in optimal SE facing conditions.  Probably not even 35 degrees in the start zone.

A couple pics of it in this link:
http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7989719


Wow.  I'm guessing that was started from a tree bomb.  I also heard some sobering news from the Icicle today.  Not sure of the aspect. 


swath in prime conditions. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP4SJhExRv8


I had a close call out in the Funnelator/Swath yesterday, triggering a large avalanche.  This was on the looker's left side of the main face, just above the last patch of large trees adjacent to the open slope.  Elevation was about 6500' and the slope quite steep, 40+ degrees. The crown was about 3-4 feet high and I think ran for about 100 feet lengthwise, parallel to the ridge line and then downslope into the looker's left-side of the main face.  This part of the crown is visible from Hwy 2.  I triggered this just a few feet below the ridge, and it appeared to have slid on an old rain crust.  This layer was very hard, and about an inch thick.  I also noticed that the underlying slope was convex at the point where it was triggered.  The slide ran all the way down the to the bottom of the Funnelator/Swath, about 2000' down producing a lot of noise and powder on the way.

I was setting up a kick turn when I heard a very loud "pop," and watched several large blocks of snow, probably 3' cubes of consolidated snow, start moving off of the ridge all around me.  I began sliding down the slope with the snow, but was only a couple of feet away from a small tree that I grabbed.  I held on to the tree for a moment but was pulled off of it by the moving snow.  I continued to slide, coming close to another tree that I got an arm around for a moment, and then after sliding further, perhaps a total of 30 - 40 feet down from the ridge, I stopped on a large tree.  The front of my skis caught the tree at my boots and I got my hands on the tree as the snow finished going by me.  Were it not for the trees slowing me down and eventually stopping me, I would surely have been pretty injured, that, probably at best.  It was a steep slope and a lot of heavy snow.

After my initial sense of humbling and thankfulness to have such a fortunate outcome, I was also pretty disappointed in myself for making the mistake of going where I think I should better than to venture.  Seems I have been battered between those emotions since.  For what it's worth, here's a little of the decision making leading up to this... 

On the approach we were careful to avoid the open slope and went up through the old growth to the looker's left of that main area. We gained the ridge between the Funnelator/Swath (to the north) and Ethel Lake(to the south), and proceeded to skin along the south side, staying back of the obvious cornices on the north side.  Skinning up through the trees we observed a lot of wind deposited snow in the open areas, consistent with the descriptions of the weather and the avalanche forecast for the weekend.  We decided against skiing the open slopes of the Funnelator/Swath, and were considering either descending the slopes we ascended, or in the clump of trees just adjacent to the open slopes of the Funnelator/Swath.  However I wanted to stay on the ridge to climb to the point where the ridge flattens out just before rising up to the peak/high point, mainly for the sake of getting there and having the view in both directions.  The south side of the ridge gets pretty thin and steep up there, and there was a clump of trees and snow mound that I was trying to proceed around, which led out onto the north side of the ridge where I triggered the slide.  It was not corniced, was above the large clump of trees, and seemed OK to me at the time to head out on about 10 - 15 feet, to get around those obstacles on the south side, and then switchback to get back on top of the ridge where I could travel over to the flat area.  As I mentioned above, I was only a 3-5 feet below the ridge and was switching back to get back on top of the ridge when I heard the snow pop and knew shit was hitting the fan.  The rest of our party was still back on the south side of the ridge, perhaps 50 feet behind on my skin track.  At the time it seemed like an OK move to make, relative to other places in the terrain... we were proceeding on a safe spot on the ridge and I was sticking with that, and I was proceeding to what I thought was the "safest" area on the north face where it was not corniced over, fairly consistent in appearance and above (albeit 20 - 30 feet) a clump of medium sized trees. 

I was clearly mistaken and am pretty frustrated by my lapse in judgement.  Seems I got too comfortable out there and decided to go out on a spot that may have been relatively safer than other options, but still too potentially unstable with high consequences.  Some thoughts about where my judgement lapsed (it seems these overlap quite a bit)....
One, underestimating the wind-loading that had occurred.  We observed signs of this on the way up, it was discussed the avy forecast, and nonetheless I got too comfortable or complacent about it.  We had decided not to descend the slope, but I somehow thought that it was OK to just venture over the ridge for a short stretch and return to the ridge as if that was an OK compromise.
Two, having a false sense of security and stability provided by trees.  I thought that the snowpack in that particular area was probably supported and at least anchored by the clump of trees just below the ridge.  Given the size of the open areas adjacent to the clump, the fact that the Funnelator/Swath/swath is cleared because of consistent slide activity, the trees offer little stability relative to stronger surrounding potential energy.
Third, failing to take into account the general shape of the feature I was venturing above.  I think the clump of trees is probably a big bulge on that face.  Not only was I lulled into a false sense of security of the trees, but also ignored the fact that they are likely part of larger, convex feature.  The snow pack was probably stretched by this where I ventured out and my weight and driving my skis in for a kick turn "popped" it.
Fourth, was just generally being too comfortable.  I have skied the area a couple of times, we were out enjoying ourselves and the area, and I didn't sharpen up when we were in hazardous terrain.  You need to be running parallel modes out there -- a fun, social mode with your partners, and a serious, constantly analytical mode to deal with real dangers.  Seems I was not attentive enough to the latter.   

I post this only in the interest of sharing information and to help myself and perhaps others learn from an avoidable mistake.  I posted a couple of pics of me climbing back up the ridge and over the crown that one person in our party took.  One of the other guys also took some photos that we will post for reference.

Eric 

Wow Eric. So glad you're Ok. Really really glad you're OK. From what I can gather it seems like you triggered the slide at or near the spot where we pulled our skins and skied on friday. Did you happen to notice our tracks and/or our lunch platform before the slide? I know we climbed up beneath and headed down at a point in the ridge where cornices hadn't developed. But I don't remember the south side as being steep like you described.


Good post EZE.

We are not masters of our universe and need to realize that the high consequences of deep slabs should change everything. I saw a couple of 3' slabs today near Stevens Pass that probably released several days ago on a N to NW aspect presumably on buried surface hoar. On one of these the slope angle was just 25-30 degrees although it didn't slide very far. The second was only 15-20 degrees at the crown but was on a convexity with a steeper slope below. It likely ran quite a ways. There are also old crowns on plenty of southerly aspects, most at convexities - these probably released on a suncrust from either February 15th or from the end of President's day weekend. We didn't feel any whumpfs or observe any current instabilities either but that does't mean they are gone. Conventional logic of pole testing, jumping on the snowpack or even compression tests and Rutschblocks don't work well with deeply buried weak layers and the results only tell you what you already know - that there is an unpredictable, deeply buried weak and slick layer. The other information can be thought of as some fun facts - interesting but not having much to do with making current decisions.

Saturday we skied north slopes near Snoqualmie and the whole party agreed that skiing steep convexities lower on the slope was not justified given that there was 4-5' of snow resting on either hoar or an old faceted/ice layer - it doesn't really matter which. Convex slopes have the worst shape and larger ones store and release energy more easily than smaller convexities of the same shape because of support through the stiffer slab layer.

I agree with Gary. See my post in Bullion Basin. To me the Q1 like a file drawer  at 48"was way more significant that the CT24 score. Just need to find the right trigger point..... bang ... big one... not survivable.
Not winning!
2 cents.
Bye
Christopher.

The layer on which the slab released was indeed pretty slick.  I think it was a rain crust, probably an inch or two thick that needed hard kicks to put in steps as I hiked up.  Perhaps some faceting occurred above it during the cold snaps?  When it released it did go quick. 

Thanks for the sentiments Ryan.  We used your skin track on the logging road, which had a few inches of new snow in it.  By the time we go to the base of the funnelator and started the climb up, your skin track was largely covered.  In fact, we couldn't really tell where you ascended.  Once on top of the ridge, I did see remnants of your tracks where you guys descended off the ridge.  Telemetry at Stevens Pass ski area for Friday and Saturday showed a few inches of new snow, but not a lot of wind.  The wind sensors are at 4900', so there was probably more wind up high on that ridge. 

It is hard to recall how much further up the ridge we went from where you guys stopped... maybe 60-100 feet further.  You are right, the south side is not too steep there, but as you go further up the ridge it does steepen. There are a couple of spots with combinations of snowdrifts and trees over some steeps to the south that are a challenge to skin through. 

Glad all turned out well!

There are endless amounts of amazing lines in that area.

If only access was better.

A couple more pictures.

EZE glad you're ok!  Thanks for surviving and posting.  It's easy to feel confident once you get to the ridge crest (i usually do), and from what it sounds like you were trying to be safe and not push it.  I'll definitely keep your experience in mind. 

EZE: glad that you are OK, and THANK YOU for posting your experience here. That was a really great analysis of how you got into trouble, and I'm sure it will make an impression on many, including myself.

Best,
Micah

Like everyone else EZE, very glad this had a good outcome and nobody got hurt.

Thanks for posting your thoughts and the photos of the aftermath. Very useful info.

Eric so glad you're here to tell the tale because you tell it really well
author=eze link=topic=20003.msg84958#msg84958 date=1299533890]
the trees offer little stability relative to stronger surrounding potential energy

I really feel like I learned something - thanks!

thanks to Gary too for additional info.  I  read this
author=garyabrill link=topic=20003.msg84990#msg84990 date=1299549364]
Convex slopes have the worst shape and larger ones store and release energy more easily than smaller convexities of the same shape because of support through the stiffer slab layer.

several times. I get the first part, but do larger convex slopes have a stiffer slab layer than smaller ones? Or is it the other way around? or is stiffness here used in relation to surface area?
thanks,
Stefan

author=eze link=topic=20003.msg85022#msg85022 date=1299558464]
The layer on which the slab released was indeed pretty slick.  I think it was a rain crust, probably an inch or two thick that needed hard kicks to put in steps as I hiked up.  Perhaps some faceting occurred above it during the cold snaps?  When it released it did go quick. 



I reread your post again, EZE, and WOW, I'm not only impressed with your good luck, but also with what a great job you did in wring this incident up.

I think that more often than not one would find some faceted grains on top of crust or ice layers. They may be sparse and hard to find but are certainly problematic. Even without that, however, the bonds to ice layers are usually not that great unless rain changing to wet snow and eventually dry is the progression. At the least, in your case, cold snow fell onto the crust and didn't stick very well. There was a presentation by Sam Colbeck, a seasoned guru now retired, at the Jackson ISSW a few years ago. The presenter who was a scientist for the US Government cold labs program, modeled such bonds mathematically and concluded that there really can't be a permanent bond between an ice layer and fresh snow because grains simply can't bond together if the ratio of one grain size to the other (in adjacent layers) exceeds 1.66. That would essentially always be the case between ice and new snow or their normal successor, rounded grains. He suggested that any such bonding must be transitory and not permanent. Corrected the name

Ice layers, crusts, faceted crusts, depth hoar (large, faceted grains), and surface hoar all constitute classic weak layers called Persistent Weak Layers that tend to have poor bonds, slippery or Sudden Planar surfaces and tend to be unpredictable in behavior with regard to avalanche failure. Perhaps the worst of the bunch are thin- faceted crusts and surface hoar because they are often variable in distribution and fragile in structure such that they may collapse suddenly under the load of a skier or of new snow. When they collapse they impart a downslope force to the overlying layer which may be enough to allow it to overcome initial friction (particularly considering the slippery grains). Depth hoar also collapses because of fragile structure but in it's full-blown form is rare in the northwest.

A couple of illustrative tests to perform when you find these weaknesses beneath especially settled snow or wind slabs are:

1) Instead of just doing a standard Compression Test, remove weaker snow until you get down to more bonded layers then do a Compression Test. As each layer fails, remove additional structureless snow then retest. Although not quantifiable, it is very demonstrative of whether failure is possible. This technique comes from a BC friend who was the first to start recreational courses in BC in the 70's and now works in the avalanche industry, commercially.

2) Just simply isolate a block, remove the unstructured snow, then press as evenly downward as you can and see how it fails. If there is a significant weak layer the bond will fail dramatically with the application of sufficient force.

3) On a slope of 30 degrees or even down to 25 degrees, after getting failure in a test at the weak layer, pick up the block and lay it back on the bed surface (failure plane). It will often slide right off demonstrating just how slippery the surface and weak layer are.   

author=cumulus link=topic=20003.msg85102#msg85102 date=1299614063]

thanks to Gary too for additional info.  I  read this several times. I get the first part, but do larger convex slopes have a stiffer slab layer than smaller ones? Or is it the other way around? or is stiffness here used in relation to surface area?
thanks,
Stefan



The gist of it is that a thicker overlying slab can have considerable strength so that it supports itself at the base of a slope through compression. It also fans out laterally to help support the layer but as the slope size increases, these supports become insignificant as compared to the tension in the slope at the weak layer. Obviously, this is a relative thing - relative to both the strength of the slab but also the weakness of the weak layer and the size of the slope.

Thank you Gary, this is great,

Yes, pretty sobering report and VERY helpful.  The logic the author used was similar to the logic I would have used or maybe exact.  I was in the area a couple weeks ago in the cirque to the lookers right or to the W/SW or up the White Pine valley one more over.  Same logging road access.  For what it's worth you can get higher in very thick timber on ridgeline terrain but like the swath things change VERY quickly from safe to dangerous. 

I get the feel that the Swath is just east enough to have a much more Rocky-mtn type of snowpack than even the pass has. 

author=savegondor link=topic=20003.msg85225#msg85225 date=1299692850]
Yes, pretty sobering report and VERY helpful.  The logic the author used was similar to the logic I would have used or maybe exact.  I was in the area a couple weeks ago in the cirque to the lookers right or to the W/SW or up the White Pine valley one more over.  Same logging road access.  For what it's worth you can get higher in very thick timber on ridgeline terrain but like the swath things change VERY quickly from safe to dangerous. 

I get the feel that the Swath is just east enough to have a much more Rocky-mtn type of snowpack than even the pass has. 


I agree with you. Maybe not Rocky Mountain, but certainly an east side snowpack. My personal experience in the bowl you describe went like this:


Hmm. There isn't much new snow in this particular area. And gee, the trees are damaged, too. And the snowpack isn't all that deep compared to the rest of the bowl. And, by golly, look at this -  large granular grains under a couple of inches of recent snow. depth hoar...WELL, ISN'T THAT INTERESTING.

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march-4-2011-funnelator-white-pine-creek-road
ryanl
2011-03-05 14:17:19