Monthly Archive for January, 2012

Wasatch Update

Published on January 31, 2012 in Random. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Now that the Wasatch Mountains actually have some snow, it is like celebrating November in February – a bit late, but welcome.

Last Saturday we followed a masterful skin track up the Argenta aprons on Mt. Kessler and caught the trail breakers right on the summit, who turned out to be Alecs Barton and two friends.  I’d met Alecs in passing before and we had a lot of common friends and interests, so it was fun catching up with him in such a beautiful spot.  Tragically, within a few minutes of our groups parting ways, Alecs’ group triggered a large avalanche in the West Couloir of Kessler and Alecs died of trauma from the 2,500′ slide.  Alecs was a prolific Wasatch backcountry snowboarder and his death underscores what a treacherous snowpack we have this year. Continue reading ‘Wasatch Update’

InstaBase – Just Add Water

Published on January 25, 2012 in current conditions. 5 Comments

The weather gods must have read the Angry Half Inch posting, as they retaliated with a magnificent storm over the past week. It was a classic rager from the Pacific Northwest which finally made it through the Idaho high pressure road block (can’t that state be moved?) and delivered a good 2-4′ base. It took place during the Sundance Film Festival and the local newspaper reported 180 stuck cars during the event. The storm included some very high winds, and why not – it you are going to have a ton of new snow on top of a fragile base of depth hoar, you might as well ice the cake with some serious wind loading.

Avalanche-wise, it is not great, but I’m glad it came in as a big hammer instead of a bunch of little storms which would only delay the inevitable avalanche cycle. From what I’ve seen in the Wasatch backcountry, a lot of the big slopes naturally avalanched during the storm and are now starting over. That said, I doubt some of the major north-facing lines will ever be very safe to ski this year. Oh well. We had a dangerous year in 2008/09 and it was fun to work out a bunch of safe, low angle tours and I’m sure those will be getting some skin tracks this season as well. Continue reading ‘InstaBase – Just Add Water’

Utah Almost Gets an Angry Inch

Published on January 16, 2012 in Random. 13 Comments

In a flurry of unexpected activity, Park City registered one of its biggest snow storms of the season early this morning with snow totals expected to reach .6018″ by the time it is all over.  Striking in the early hours of dawn, the storm raged for 23 minutes beginning at 5:21am and tapering off by 5:44am.  Plow drivers have been busy clearing the roads of all snow and large chunks of asphalt, which will help with next summer’s road repair maintenance schedule.  Exotic sports cars with less than 2″ of clearance are urged to avoid driving and infants who have not yet learned to walk should stay indoors.  Fortunately, schools were already closed for the Martin Luther King holiday, which helped spare the children from nature’s fury. Continue reading ‘Utah Almost Gets an Angry Inch’

Wasatch Night Racing

Published on January 13, 2012 in Racing. 6 Comments

One of the cruxes of ski mountaineering races in America is that it takes a staggering amount of work to put one on. By comparison, there are all sorts of Citizen League XC races and dual slalom night events, which are a great way to get together, have a casual event/race, stay in shape and keep your interest in the sport.  Ski mountaineering night races have been held in Europe for quite a while and have also started up in some Colorado ski towns.  Now, after many years of discussion, there is an informal night series in the Wasatch Mountains as well. Continue reading ‘Wasatch Night Racing’

Scarpa Aliens

Published on January 11, 2012 in Gear Reviews. 3 Comments Tags: .

I’m wearing a Scarpa Alien boot on my right foot and a Montrail running shoe on my left, and without looking, it’s hard to tell the difference.  The Alien is the latest full-on race boot from Scarpa and one of the things I love about it is that it is so completely, apologetically specialized that it is hard to compare to anything else out there, including running shoes. For many years, the Scarpa F1 boot dominated the world of Ski Mountaineering racing to the point that the starting lineup at a race was referred to as “The Green Line” due to F1′s being green and everywhere you looked.  At the time, the F1 was also a state of the art race boot, but as racers started to tweak the living hell out of their boots by slicing, drilling, milling and grinding them, new rules were put in place to ensure that boots were hitting a minimal level of safety by having a certain amount of tread on the bottom and would work with crampons.  New boot makers started to get into the market and although the F1 was still popular, it took extensive home modifications to make it competitive. Continue reading ‘Scarpa Aliens’

Skating & Scambling in the Sierra

Published on January 10, 2012 in Trip Reports. 8 Comments Tags: , .

After long hiatus, I made a trip back to the east side of the Sierra range last weekend for the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center fund raising party.  This area is one of those places that after visiting it once, you swear you are going to return for annual skiing trips as it is incredibly beautiful and has fantastic terrain.  But, in a perverse case of misery love company, the Sierra is having an even worse year than the Wasatch, which is currently on track to being one of the worse years on record.   Given the choice between skiing a 12″ base of rotten snow over rocks in the Wasatch or going alpine ice skating, hiking and rock climbing in the snowless Sierra, California wins hands down. Continue reading ‘Skating & Scambling in the Sierra’