october 29, 2005, muir

c'mon main (say it like Scarface)

You wanna waste my time? Okay. I call my lawyer. He's the best lawyer in Miami. He's such a good lawyer, that by tomorrow morning, you gonna be working in Alaska. So dress warm.

how about some information pleeeaase?

Yeah, how was the snow??  and visibility?  wind?  etc.  I'm aiming for tommorrow to complete my first turns all year.  Yep,yep,yep.

*zoom*

thanks to all the costumed ladies for the sweets in the parking lot

You mean the snow fairies?

. . . snow was falling above about 4,500 ft., winds about 35 mph most of the day, visibility poor with some periodic clearing above 9,000 ft. Pretty good wind-packed fresh on the upper Muir snowfield.

However, we skinned from the parking lot, and skied more or less continuously back. Don't take your best skis, though.

skinning up to Alta Vista

typical visibility on the lower mountain

Upper Muir snowfield looked like this

5" new (yippee!) at the parking lot with drifts up to a couple feet in places.  Blustery. Snowed lightly most of the day. Vis in and out, mostly out.  The many rocks still showing made up for some of the poor vis.  Saw that most started hiking down from Pebble Creek.  Skied down all the way to the parking lot  :D   Stay light!  (easy to say for us fairies)


We've come here to call for a season of snow.
We have wishes and hopes, Let's do it, here we go!

Don't treat our spells like wishes so trite.
Make our season soft, fluffy and white

May the deepening snows not go to our head
Ensure that health stays, to continuously SHRED

Though stressors and craziness will all feel Bezerk-
We shall catch the POW days, and not have to work!

So with the wave of this wand and the sound of this CRY (you'd have to have been there)
Make the cold skies open up and let the snow FLY!!
 

  --snow fairy '06  



           ;)

Greg; Monika, Thanks for the conditions update.

... You mean the snow fairies?

Them there looks like the Crevasse Angels all gussied up to go out on the town to me.

Monika - cute poem - I like it  ;)

.

Luckily, it took us a lot longer than everybody else to get up and down... because we were in and out of the sun all the way to Pebble Creek!



Happy Halloween!

You mean the snow fairies?

umm, Allyson, i have a question:  the "S", the cape, and the pigtails.  does that make you a Super SheMan?

I skied sweep on the snowfields yesterday, following all other homeward bound skiers by a couple of hours.  Probably, I should have set my alarm the night before...but in the end I left the Paradise parking lot at 1:30 in the afternoon, by which point other skiers, more attuned to seasonal variations in available daylight, were already thinking about heading down.  I skinned directly from the parking lot into typical murk, with intermittent light snow, flat light and fog.

On the plus side, I did remember to bring my rock skis, which proved to be the right decision.  For all the internet posting and posturing over the years about people who posthole uphill  in skin tracks, this is the first time I've seen the overwhelming majority of skiers actually postholing downhill in the skin track.  In fact, below Pebble Creek I ran into a thundering herd of several dozen, all carrying skis (and a snowboard or two), and all apparently doing their best to obliterate any potentially skiable sections of snow through the rock gardens.  Some looked remarkably unhappy.  Some seemed a tad defensive, emphasizing that their skis had come in very handy on the uphills.  This warpage of conventional wisdom struck me as very strange...but then again, I was headed happily uphill at the time, and I found my skis very helpful.  I should mention that I did see a couple of skiers actually skiing, including at least one regular TAY poster.

To this point, visibility remained poor.  At 3:15 I spotted, for just an instant, my shadow....but I am an old hand at this, and refused to permit myself even a glimmer of hope.  At 3:20 the skies abruptly cleared, the air warmed and the breeze died, not fifteen minutes after the last of the skiers booted downhill into the distance (well, actually there were a few more around 3:30 or so, but they were skiing so fast and gleefully that I think they hardly even noticed me grinding steadily uphill).  

I climbed for another hour and a half under to near the level of Anvil Rock under mostly clear skies in deepening wind-affected powder.  At almost 5:00 I stopped, pounded a Gu and two Fig Newtons and made ready to strip skins....at which point the wind picked up, the fog rolled in, visibility dropped to nil and it began to get dark.  Ah, me.  I picked my way down, avoiding a few of the worse hazards by feel and altimeter (some deep, partially-bridged moats gave me a scare) making good time and surprisingly good linked turns to near Pebble Creek.  At this point, forward progress slowed drastically, but I did manage to ski, somewhat awkwardly, to the car.  Of course, doing so in near-full darkness was probably foolhardy, but once I reached the paved trails I knew I pretty much had it licked.  At almost 7:00, snowplowing at excessive speed down a refrozen, bootpacked path, I careened wildly across a familiar-looking trail intersection and found myself at the parking lot. I saw no one, costumed or not, handing out cake. I saw, in fact, no one at all.

I feasted on peanut butter sandwiches and strong coffee, then set off for home. The drive to Bellingham went surprisingly well; I missed the bull elk which tried to throw itself under my wheels in Elbe, and I hardly even hit any red lights in the strip mall gauntlet that is Spanaway.  

does that make you a Super SheMan?

I think a Super Schier, once we get her a proper AT rig!

I think a Super Schier, once we get her a proper AT rig!

roger that Greg. over the phone i agreed to send her a pair of Dynafit bindings, brand new in the box.  since i can't figure out how to fix a cable to them, they're useless to me...  AT is one step closer to free heel....  ;)

Bill, Dave, and I were up there today.

I broke a skin tip loop.

Then Dave hauled a$$ up the snowfield.

Then my boots were really really painful.

Then we skied wind-affected fresh and had fun.

Then my finger went numb and had to be rewarmed in my armpit. Mmmmm.

Then we skied rocks in a whiteout, until we gave up and walked down.

Then we ate burgers and drove home.

Winter is coming.  :)

pics

hey kam, glad you're sending ally some real gear,  although I must admit she does look good on that board...

the snowboard fairy

a big thanks to the fairies for conjuring up a nice start to the 2006 season.  but were they really fairies?  they look more like trouble to me....

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
Harpier cries:'tis time! 'tis time!
Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

let's hope their charms and spells bring us the goods!  

I think a Super Schier, once we get her a proper AT rig!

greg and kam--
i'm on my way to the other side.  even with a cape on, yesterday's trudge up the mt. in the slowshoes was a slog--and might proove to be my last.  hard to watch all those skiiers glide by so nonchalant and carefree--if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!  :)

as for the snow fairies, do you think they skiied in their costumes?  check out a short viddy.

sure is starting to feel like winter up there!  it's hard to believe pebble creek looked like this last week (model--skip), but yesterday the same place looked like this.   let's hope it keeps up!!   :D

Remember, if you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.

I would suggest something like this for the beating.

Nice pics pbelitz,  you sure had better visibility yesterday.

- cute poem - I like it  ;)

.

 that's one of my good spells

 they look more like trouble to me....

   That all depends on how you take the "beating"...

             mmmeow!


;)

this is starting to sound like Trouble-All-Year... ;)