Tag Archive for 'avalanche'

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’

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’

Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop

Published on October 19, 2009 in Announcements. 7 Comments Tags: .

I know – I’ve been a slack-tart on updating StraightChuter.com and apologize profusely. We had family in town last week, plus I’ve been working on a cool little website addition that has to remain top secret until our Antarctica trip.

But, on to more important items. Taking a cue from the ISSW, the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center have put together the Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW) which will take place on Saturday, November 7th from 1:00 to 4:30pm at The Depot in Salt Lake City. The idea with the USAW is to present a condensed cross-section of professional avalanche presentations, and this premier event should be off the charts. Among the highlights are Larry Dunn from the National Weather Service (and an avid BC skier) talking about the new Snow Web Pages for the upcoming year, Bruce Tremper presenting a case study on the 2008/09 Little Water avalanche incident and Ian McCammon talking about critical slope angles. As an event capper, there is an afternoon social at the Blue Goose Bar at the Depot sponsored by High Angle Construction. Continue reading ‘Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop’

Faith Base Skinning

Published on January 12, 2009 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 2 Comments Tags: .
While skinning up a steep, exposed slope today in a total white-out, it occurred to me that we were engaging in Faith Based Skinning.  Faith Based Skinning (FBS) is when you feel nervous about a slope, but continue on anyway because, well, nothing bad has happened yet.  This is not such a great idea.  I consider snowpacks to be guilty until proven innocent and although I’m tempted to take shortcuts, it is surprising how many times I’ve avoided random avalanches by taking a safer route up, even if it was much longer.
A large avalanche covering some Faith Based Skinning tracks. It appeared to be safe, but why not give it the benefit of doubt and go a bit wider?
A large avalanche covering some Faith Based Skinning tracks. It appeared to be safe, but why not give it the benefit of doubt and go a bit wider?
 
A close cousin to Faith Base Skinning is Faith Based Skiing (also FBS).  Faith Base Skiing often happens during periods of increasing stability when people (like me) are sick of skiing Geh Flat Powder and decide to ski a steeper line.  This in itself isn’t so bad, but I try to ease into steeper skiing by nibbling around the edges of more protected terrain, rather than center-punching a slope based on nothing more than faith that it won’t slide. 
Faith Based Skiing gone awary. Why tempt fate with an exposed line when other options are available?
Faith Based Skiing gone awry. Why tempt fate with an exposed line when other options are available?

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PNW Practices Random Acts of Avalanche Destruction

Published on January 9, 2009 in current conditions. 5 Comments Tags: .
One of the defining moments in my life (Ski Career 1.0) was sitting in a cabin at Alpental outside of Seattle watching it rain so hard that the windows looked like a braided river crossing.  It was the middle of February and not only were the slopes barren mounds of mud, but there were gushing rivers of brown water splitting them.  It was about this time that I decided that going to college might be a good idea.

It was during a rain event like this a few days ago that the main run at the Hyak ski area right near Alpental climax avalanched to the ground, tore out a bunch of lift towers, destroyed buildings and shoved houses off of their foundations.  This was a 4-6 foot crown line that ran on a slope that was somewhere in the 25 degree range.

Hot tub anyone?
Hot tub anyone?  photo: Misha Stachowiak

 

Pacific Northwest style groomers.  photo: Misha Stachowiak

 Nobody was hurt in this slide, but it is a good reminder that the mountains are never 100% safe.  If it is steep enough to turn, it is steep enough to slide in the right (or wrong) conditions.
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The Extended Column Test (ECT)

Published on January 6, 2009 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 12 Comments Tags: .

As much as anything, I love learning new snow stability test as I get bored doing the same old ones over and over.  I use to do a lot of Reusch Block tests, but over the years they started getting smaller and smaller.  Nowadays, I’m into digging a pit which is big enough to preform three isolated column tests – one shovel shear, one compression, and then a repeat of whichever of those two seemed most valuable.  I prefer lots of half-assed pits over one mega pit as conditions vary so much.  Because of this, I dig a lot of my pits with my skis on and only spend about 5-10 minutes max per pit.

I was out with Dylan Freed the other day who showed me the Extended Column Test, which I like as it uses the same pit format as the above tests and shows not only weak layers, but also gives you an idea of how easily they will propagate. The test is just like a compression test, except you use an extended, triple-wide column, and thus the name – the Extended Column Test.

Dylan also passed along the written description from the  Applied Snow and Avalanche Research at the University of Calgary which can be found here.

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Developing an Eye for Angles – Part 2

Published on January 2, 2009 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 6 Comments Tags: .

Part of the challenge of correctly identifying slope angles by eye is that they often look much steeper when viewed straight-on than they do from the side.  (This is also a good photography trick – shooting straight-on, like from a helicopter or across a valley makes the slopes look lots steeper).  A classic case of this is Mt. Superior, which when viewed directly across the canyon from Alta or Snowbird, looks really steep, but when you actually ski it, it’s about like a black diamond run at a resort – not too bad. 

The steep looking Monte Cristo Headwall as seen head-on from Mt. Superior. Photo by Carl Skoog
The same 30-degree headwall as seen from the side. Alex Lowe digging a pit.

Something to keep in mind is that your angle-sense changes when you move to different areas.  For instance, the snow in Alaska sticks to steeper slopes than in the Wasatch, so all of those little visual clues you subconsciously pick up on are off.  As a result, I often underestimate my maritime snowpack angles and overestimate the continental ones.

Any way you physically measure a slope is better than nothing, although the generally agreed on best method is to sight down it with an accurate clinometer, or get it from a distant side view.  Measuring it directly on the snow, or on a pole on the snow (as shown in yesterday’s post) may pick up unwanted dips or roll-overs.  Keeping a compass/clinometer in a chest pouch or front zipper pocket makes it easy and painless to grab a quick angle.

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Developing an Eye for Angles – Part 1

Published on January 1, 2009 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 0 Comments Tags: .

An experienced car mechanic can look at a nut or bolt from ten feet away and instantly tell you what size it is down to the 64th of an inch.  It is not magic, but more a case of repetitive familiarity within a certain range.  Cars tend to use bolts in the 1/4″ to 1″ range, so after a few hundred times of fitting sockets to them, you start to develop a eye for what size they are.

The same idea applies for slope angles, which in terms of avalanche danger, is a key factor.  Although my eyes/brain are not accurately calibrated for the sub 25-degree range, or over 50-degrees, I can usually pick out a slope angle in the 30-45 degree range to within a degree or so at a glance.  Like a mechanic, this is more the result of first making a guesstimate, then trying it (with a clinometer in the case of a slope).  After doing this a few hundred times you start to get pretty accurate at it.  If I’m with a group, I make everyone guess (including myself) before taking the actual measurement, just for the fun of it.

Checking the slope angle in the Tetons. Photo by Doug Coombs.

The significance of developing an eye for angles is that often, just a few degrees can make a huge difference.  For instance, say you are skinning up a 30 degree ridgeline, which then contours around into a slightly steeper bowl.  In this case, you will be changing aspects (north/south/east/west) AND bumping the angle up towards the prime 38-degree avalanche strike zone.  It is subtle, but within a few feet you can go from relative safety to dangerous.

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Deciphering the Avalanche Rose

Published on December 23, 2008 in 07 Avalanche Avoidance. 9 Comments Tags: .

The idea of an “avalanche rose” has been around for a while, but has been making its way into avalanche forecasts where it is one of my favorite quick-hit summaries of the current avalanche stability.  The “rose” part come from the concept of a compass rose (north, south, east & west pointers with sub quads) and the avalanche part comes from, well, avalanches.  I like the avalanche rose as it is a very quick, graphical overview.  I wouldn’t ski a slope based only on the info gleaned from an avalanche rose diagram, but it would give me a big head-start on where to start looking for trouble or safe skiing for the day.

As the skier sees Little Cottonwood Canyon…
… the same view through the eyes of the avalanche rose. In the above illustration, the skier probably would have triggered an avalanche up in the red zone.

The avalanche rose is a stylized top view of a mountain which splits the world into aspects and elevations, then assigns an avalanche danger accordingly.  It is a rough estimate and not like you can suddenly cross the 10,000′ foot line, or from NW to North and have the danger dissipate, but it gives a good general idea.  Much like a traffic light, red means “stop - high danger”  (beyond that is extreme/black, which is rare), and green is “go – low danger,” which makes it easy to figure out. 

The avalanche rose in action on a daily UAC forecast:

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Wild Weekend in Store for the Wasatch Mtns

Published on December 19, 2008 in current conditions. 1 Comment Tags: .

Rat-a-tat-tat, hang on to your hat!  There’s going to be some very wide spread and dangerous avalanche activity in the Wasatch Mountains today and this weekend.

One of my favorite snow stability comments comes from Bob Athey - “When it comes to snow, it all depends.”  If there’s no loose snow to transport, then high winds are not necessarily that bad.  Sometimes 30″ of new snow can be very stable.  Shallow snowpacks are generally weak… but not always.

And then there are times like this where all of these elements come together and go in the opposite direction to create a VERY dangerous snowpack – high winds blowing lots of light density snow onto a weak, shallow snowpack with a variety of slick crusts buried in it.  And lots of powder starved skiers/triggers.

The avalanche danger rose from today – that’s a whole lotta red!

Bruce Tremper of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center issued today’s advisory, which is noteworthy as it is only a few times per year (hopefully no more) that the danger jumps up this high.  “Extreme” avalanche danger is very rare and may only happen once a year, if that, so to see this much red (High danger) over so many aspects and elevations says something about the conditions.  Having forecast for the Wasatch Mountains for decades, Bruce’s assessments always seem very accurate, at least to me.  If we get a ton of new snow, but it is stable, Bruce will give you the straight scoop.  Conversely, if Bruce mentions wid-spread high-danger, I’d pay attention.

Kitchen window forecasting: lots of wind and transport, and this isn’t even a very windy spot. The mountains are going to be rocking.
I still get out on days like these, but more in a manner of practicing extremely safe route finding rather than looking for good turns.  In conditions like these, if it is steep enough to ski, it will probably be steep enough to slide.
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