January 21, moonlight bowl
1/21/07
5783
11
Headed out with Jerry and Eric to hit moonlight bowl yesterday, and were met with thousands off feet of creamy powder. We met up with Snoslut and Tim skinning up after our first lap down to the PCT, and were soon passed by monica. Avy conditions lead us to be cautious on aspect, as there were 10-12" crowns all over the place. As long as we stayed out of the wind effected snow & off rollovers, anything that broke off or sluffed was isolated and loose, so it just disintegrated without problem. However, Snoslut witnessed a rather large avalance (~1' crown, a hundred or so feet wide) in the drainage just east of moonlight that we saw the remains of skinning up. From earlier reports from running into people, I guess it was fairly windloaded over there.
I was expecting a circus but when I saw it was you guys I smiled. Nice meeting you again Monica. Btw what kind of steriods you use?? I've had to deviate from my standard of corndogs since they don't sell them at 5am. I'm on mcgriddles and redbull now.
Interesting weekend in terms of snow stability. Kept you on your toes and knocked the adrenaline level up a notch.
What I observed/heard over Saturday and Sunday at Heather Ridge.
1. Snowshoe'er sets off a slab.
2. 2 skiers collapse a snowcave that some snowshoe'ers built in the middle of a slope with them in it.
3. Skinning up and hearing "do you see my snowboard" somewhere a ridge over.
4. Skinning out and seeing more cracks than a dike in New Orleans.
5. Skier dropping into the bowl without turning and then kaboom, ass over elbows for a bit.
6. Taking a line with x Stevens Patroller and buddy, who'd got his car and gear stolen after competing in the world extreme ski comp, and was sporting some borrowed neon. Crazy part was watching the slab they cut from far below. All I saw was the snow plume over taking trees 20ft plus. Btw the x patroller skied without poles and his half lab/poodle mix sported the gnarliest snow crusted beard.
It was finally nice to be able to rip some open slopes instead of spending all day in the trees. I'm still day dreaming about rooster tails 15ft in the air, trailing 30ft behind, according to gregm's account. On a board it was lean back on your tail bottomless, face shot, body shot just watch out for that steep roll over.
No pics from Saturday due to sketch factor. Once you started to go you didn't stop or look back. Sunday I got a few pics of gregm harvesting some in a untouched bowl as well as some of the crowns if anybody is interested.
ABOSUTELY AN EPIC WINTER!!
Interesting weekend in terms of snow stability. Kept you on your toes and knocked the adrenaline level up a notch.
What I observed/heard over Saturday and Sunday at Heather Ridge.
1. Snowshoe'er sets off a slab.
2. 2 skiers collapse a snowcave that some snowshoe'ers built in the middle of a slope with them in it.
3. Skinning up and hearing "do you see my snowboard" somewhere a ridge over.
4. Skinning out and seeing more cracks than a dike in New Orleans.
5. Skier dropping into the bowl without turning and then kaboom, ass over elbows for a bit.
6. Taking a line with x Stevens Patroller and buddy, who'd got his car and gear stolen after competing in the world extreme ski comp, and was sporting some borrowed neon. Crazy part was watching the slab they cut from far below. All I saw was the snow plume over taking trees 20ft plus. Btw the x patroller skied without poles and his half lab/poodle mix sported the gnarliest snow crusted beard.
It was finally nice to be able to rip some open slopes instead of spending all day in the trees. I'm still day dreaming about rooster tails 15ft in the air, trailing 30ft behind, according to gregm's account. On a board it was lean back on your tail bottomless, face shot, body shot just watch out for that steep roll over.
No pics from Saturday due to sketch factor. Once you started to go you didn't stop or look back. Sunday I got a few pics of gregm harvesting some in a untouched bowl as well as some of the crowns if anybody is interested.
ABOSUTELY AN EPIC WINTER!!
author=snoslut link=topic=6090.msg25177#msg25177 date=1169489789]
I got a few pics of gregm harvesting some in a untouched bowl if anybody is interested.
yo i'm intersted
one of snoslut
i missed the snocave incident but i swear the rest is true - including the dude with the neon pants!
Heavens - We are are jealous of your riding.
Snocave collapes with folks inside? damn, sux for them.
Speaking of steriods - I'm sure there a healthy dose of them a mcgriddle!
You better keep this up!
Snocave collapes with folks inside? damn, sux for them.
Speaking of steriods - I'm sure there a healthy dose of them a mcgriddle!
You better keep this up!
SnowCaves + Snowshoes+Open slope-Wands=Skiers in hole surrounded by angry folks w/ snow down their shirts. ???
The folks with snow down their shirts were not so angry. More like oblivious. They set off a small slide in the middle of a slope and decided that would be a fun place to dig a snow cave. With no wands to indicate their cave, we cautiously skied the left side of the slope, but on a steep roll a 40' x 20' x 1' slide slid over their snow cave. As the snow was piling up, I noticed a snowshoe moving in the rubble. So we skied over to check out the scene.
We found a snowshoe and a back pack, but no people. We yelled to see if they were around, and got no response, and saw no tracks leaving the area. After turning our beacons on and getting no signal we assembled our probe poles to begin a search.
After we assembled our poles, one person popped out of the snow! We asked if they could breathe okay in the rubble and they said "Yeah! Our snow cave is great!" We asked if they thought that it was unsafe to build a snow cave on a slope that had slid after they snowshoed acros it and the response was "The cave has two entrances! It's a horseshoe shaped cave." Hmm..... "Did you hear us yelling for you?", we asked. "Why were you yelling?" "Well, don't you see the second snow slide that covered your snow cave? We though you were buried.", we stated. "No, we were fine, the snowcave is really strong." Hmm....... "Do you have beacons?", we asked. "No". At that point we realized they were not interested in discussing their safety, or potential risks, so we left them to play in their snow cave.
That was our first run. A scary start, but it got better after that.
We found a snowshoe and a back pack, but no people. We yelled to see if they were around, and got no response, and saw no tracks leaving the area. After turning our beacons on and getting no signal we assembled our probe poles to begin a search.
After we assembled our poles, one person popped out of the snow! We asked if they could breathe okay in the rubble and they said "Yeah! Our snow cave is great!" We asked if they thought that it was unsafe to build a snow cave on a slope that had slid after they snowshoed acros it and the response was "The cave has two entrances! It's a horseshoe shaped cave." Hmm..... "Did you hear us yelling for you?", we asked. "Why were you yelling?" "Well, don't you see the second snow slide that covered your snow cave? We though you were buried.", we stated. "No, we were fine, the snowcave is really strong." Hmm....... "Do you have beacons?", we asked. "No". At that point we realized they were not interested in discussing their safety, or potential risks, so we left them to play in their snow cave.
That was our first run. A scary start, but it got better after that.
Thanks for the great stories and good info. Garth
That snowcave story is quite humorous in the abstract, but not so funny probably for the folks that had to probeline. No one needs that kind of sickening adrenalin ride for no good reason.
I guess with the road closed, Skyline is the new Paradise.
I guess with the road closed, Skyline is the new Paradise.
Due to stability and visibility, taking pictures wasn't a priority but here's what I got...
Gregm lost with no tracks to follow and a ways to go... ::)
Another one of gregm
Hey who put that debris there??
Mr. Slab
Mrs. Slab
The grand daddy of them all. Skier cut on easterly aspect, rollover 30 degrees plus at the top at around 4600ft. Closer inspection revealed a crown at least 1-2ft deep with propagation running couple hundy. Hard to tell how deep the debris pile was but while combing around I did manage to see tree branches snapped and branches that will be growing in new directions. Wish I could have gotten a pic of the avi coming down but all I saw was white smoke overtaking trees. My q to leave.
The slabs that were set off earlier in the day were isolated due to the nature of the terrain and occurred on easterly facing slopes between 5300-5000ft. Steep rollovers on top but petering out below before flattening out and going slightly up hill. The last picture was on a consistent pitch so the slide gained significant speed before losing momentum below.
Gregm lost with no tracks to follow and a ways to go... ::)
Another one of gregm
Hey who put that debris there??
Mr. Slab
Mrs. Slab
The grand daddy of them all. Skier cut on easterly aspect, rollover 30 degrees plus at the top at around 4600ft. Closer inspection revealed a crown at least 1-2ft deep with propagation running couple hundy. Hard to tell how deep the debris pile was but while combing around I did manage to see tree branches snapped and branches that will be growing in new directions. Wish I could have gotten a pic of the avi coming down but all I saw was white smoke overtaking trees. My q to leave.
The slabs that were set off earlier in the day were isolated due to the nature of the terrain and occurred on easterly facing slopes between 5300-5000ft. Steep rollovers on top but petering out below before flattening out and going slightly up hill. The last picture was on a consistent pitch so the slide gained significant speed before losing momentum below.
gregm? on a snowboard? what is the world coming to :D
A friend and I went up both days last weekend. Good stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how much untracked powder you can find in the glades and gullies back there. I wanted to thank whomever found my pole and placed it in the PCT. Cheers.
well Board Straight, I didn't find your pole....
But I had fun skiing with you both days.. ;) Good luck finding fellow spilt boarders out there in the TAY community, hopefully to hike and ride with too. You've been a great BC-partner over the years.
The conditions were a bit sketchy, but the skiing was fantastic. A perfect way to end our time in the PNW, as my wife and I are moving to Colorado.
Bring on the next storm cycle!
Jim K.
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