Today in particular, and the last four days in general, have more than made up for the entire season in the Wasatch. The Wrangell-St.Elias range not only has a fantastic snowpack, but is currently enjoying fantastic stability. Continue reading ‘Incredible Skiing!’
Archive for the 'current conditions' Category
It seems like almost everywhere in the U.S. had a below average snow season this year, except the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Apparently Mother Nature was throwing low, inside, sliders this winter that didn’t have enough umphh to go very far or blast over the Cascade Mountains, so while most Americans were skiing rocks and dirt, AK is phat. I talked to Joe Stock in Anchorage about this a few days ago and he described entire ravines being filled in this year – ahhhhh, yessssss! My Alaska plans this spring include being part of the Wild Alpine Wilderness Ski Week in the Wrangell-St. Elias area, and then extending that for another ten days of skiing in the area with Jim Harris. Continue reading ‘Up, Up & Away to AK’
Never mind that last post. As part of an on-going winter of the weirdest weather I have ever seen, on Saturday we skied dirt in the rain, then on Sunday it turned to bottomless puking snow. The snow totals for this season must look like a person (or a planet) going into cardiac arrest – up, up…. down, down, down.. nothing… down, DOWN, down, nothing… UP UP UP, down…. nothing. For comparison, as of Saturday 3/17, Alta has as much snow as it did on Jan 8th last year. It is like the season is just getting started and yet it is almost over. Continue reading ‘Utah Gets Some’
It’s 50 degrees and raining in Summit Park. Alta reportedly lost 3′ of snow over the last week. My front yard is bare and the flower buds are starting to poke up (nothing a ski boot can’t fix). At this time last season we had at least a 5′ base, and growing. Snow is forecast for the weekend, but man… it’s the grim season that never was.
The Pacific Northwest deserves a big round of thanks for sending down such a nice storm last week. Our snowstake showed 2′ of additional base which is settling fast, but definitely helped. Continue reading ‘Fun Weekend’
After a bunch of unmounting, binding shuffling, a few misdrilled holes (damn) and some gear swapping, I finally had a chance to take out my lightweight setup last Saturday. I could still shave a few ounces, or maybe even a pound, out of it, but the skis, boots, bindings and skins are currently weighing in at 12.5 lbs all told. The basic setup:
- Scarpa Alien boots
- Dynafit TLT Vertical bindings
- 167cm K2 Backlite skis
- K2 skins
I need to swap out the “heavy” Vertical bindings for a pair of titanium TLT’s I have, which will drop quite a bit of footweight off the system. The Backlites are great for all around skiing (not a full-on race ski by any means) and are kind of a Wayback Lite. A cool thing about having a lightweight setup is that I can tour with an ABS Powder Line 5 airbag pack and not take a big weight penalty. Continue reading ‘Burning Pow’
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’
I thought the skiing was pretty good for October 8th, but my skis disagree and still aren’t on speaking terms. Continue reading ’2011/12 First Day’
I don’t think it will stay for the winter, but it was a nice surprise to wake up to! Continue reading ‘Snow in Park City – Oct 6′
The Wasatch has had its temper tantrums this season, but for the most part, it has been a classic year so far with lots of quick 6-12″ refresher storms such as we’ve had for the last week. I’m not sure how the snow totals are stacking up historically, but as of now I’d guess we are well ahead of average.
The powder skiing has been good… Continue reading ‘Wasatch Conditions’
