Monthly Archive for January, 2010

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Belayed Ski Cuts

Published on January 12, 2010 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 10 Comments Tags: .

At times when you want to do a ski cut, but there is no island of safety to ski to, a belayed ski cut comes in handy.  Prime candidates for belayed ski cuts are narrow, steep couloirs with no hiding spots, or the opposite end of the spectrum, wide open faces.

For this type of ropework, simplicity and expediency is desirable as if you get too complex and time consuming, you might decide that it’s not worth going to the effort of pulling out the rope, and thus skip it.  For this reason, I keep ski cutting belays as basic as possible – skip the harness and tie the rope directly around the cuttee’s waist, and then use a hip belay from above.  Total ingredients – one rope and about 60 seconds. Continue reading ‘Belayed Ski Cuts’

Ski Cutting

Published on January 11, 2010 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 10 Comments Tags: .

Along with cornice stomping, I also do a lot of ski cuts before skiing a slope. Ski cuts are quite a bit dicier than cornice stomping as you have to actually get down on the slope and try to trigger a slide. Because of this, I am usually fairly confident that a slope won’t slide before I give it a ski cut, but do so anyways as a matter of habit. You never know.

If there is no “island of safety” to ski to, it might be better to find another slope rather than ski cut your way into the middle of an exposed slope and stop. Another critical element of ski cuts is to do them as aggressively as possible, like, really down-weight on the slope as you move over it. This is akin to bounce testing aid-climbing gear where the idea is to load it up as hard as possible so that if it is going to blow, you want it to go when you are expecting it, not as a surprise later on.

In the photo below, the “X” marks show where I’d really bounce on the slope.  Notice on this slope I’d lose quite a bit of vertical with this ski cut (probably 100′ vertical feet), but it is important to both keep your speed up AND bounce as hard as possible, which means you are going to blow some vert in the process. The ridge at the end of the red line would form a so-so island of safe – not bad, but not great either.  I’d prefer a cliff or rock to hide under. Continue reading ‘Ski Cutting’

How To Know Where To Go

Published on January 7, 2010 in 10 Navigation. 9 Comments Tags: .

A huge part of backcountry skiing is knowing where to go on any given day to find the best skiing.  It might be corn, powder, chutes, long tours or quick hits, but once you have been doing it for a while, you can almost always find The Goods (well, except for last week – sorry Doug & Courtney).  Another factor in this equation is escaping backcountry crowds by avoiding the default areas as much as possible.

How do you keep finding new places, or at least places that are ahead of the crowd curve? My main tool for this task are a couple of wall photos of my local mountains.  Whenever I’m on the phone arranging a day of skiing with a friend, I’ll usually be looking at them, discussing options, and most likely being reminded of little projects that I’ve been meaning to ski.  Some people prefer to use topo maps, but I’m a visual guy, so I like photos.  Google Earth is okay for getting a rough idea on distant places, but there’s nothing like an aerial photo to spark the imagination. Continue reading ‘How To Know Where To Go’

Cornice Stomping

Published on January 5, 2010 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 11 Comments Tags: .

Stomping cornices is by far and away my favorite and most used snow stability assessment technique.  Test slopes are a close second, but there is a lot to be learned from dropping a big fat ol’ cornice directly onto a loaded slope and seeing what happens.  I like cornice stomping as it is something you can do on the fly as you are skinning along, plus it is perversely satisfying in a pyromania like of way. Cornholiomania perhaps.

If the slope below the cornice has little to no consequences, I’ll usually go right up to it and start stomping.  I’ve taken a few rides, but if it is a mellow little slope, it is almost more like cow-tipping and the learning experience is well worth it.  If the slope is more dangerous (longer, trees, terrain traps, etc), I’ll hold onto a partner’s poles or approach it more cautiously. Continue reading ‘Cornice Stomping’