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.

Mark Holbrook doing a belayed ski cut on a day when he forgot his ski pants.

The idea with a belay is to help pull the skier off the slab when and if it breaks.  Hopefully it will break either right at his feet, or just above him, so the pressures of arresting the skier will not be that great (compared to arresting a belayed rock climbing fall).

For almost any type of belayed skiing, a hip belay works well as it allows the belayer to pay out rope quickly and smoothly. My technique of choice is to not have the belayer tie-in, but instead to leave the end of the rope free, so that when the person is done with the ski cut and the rope is all paid out, the belayer lets go of the rope and the skier goes down with it trailing.  This serves two purposes; first, it acts as an old school avalanche cord which may help if the skier is caught and buried in a slide, and second, once the first person gets to a safe spot, he can coil the rope while the next person skis down, so there is no wasted time.

Mark "Chuteski" Holbrook trailing a rope after a belayed ski cut.

For a general purpose belay/mini rappel/day ski touring rope, I use a 50-100′ length of 8mm accessory cord.  It is not the strongest rope in the world, but it is compact, cheap and readily available.  Bigger, beefier ropes are better, but if the bulk keeps you from carrying them, then what is the point?

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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.

How a cornice first fractures tells you a lot about the snow.  In the photo below, the long shooting cracks are a sign of a brittle snow structure (at least on the cornice) which to me means to look out for stiff soft slabs below.

One of the biggest cornice surprises I’ve ever had occurred at the crest of Wolverine Cirque on a morning when the wind was howling.  We knew that the Cirque was going to be loaded and didn’t intend to ski it, but on the way over to take a look at it, a cornice the size of a semi-truck exploded right under my ski tips a good 20′ back from the edge.  We turned tail and went down the windward side, which turned out to be almost as treacherous as the wind had packed in little pockets that kept ripping out magic-carpet style and sending us for rides.

Backcountry etiquette dictates that you are suppose to just break a few cornices and leave the rest for later, or another party.  This can be easier said than done as stomping benders are hard to stop until you finally snap out of it in a “Whoa, dude, what did I just do?” moment half a mile later, as Sir Stompalot demonstrates in the photo below.  Go dog go!

A few years ago I had a chance to go out with the Solitude Patrol on their morning rounds and it was interesting to see that cornice abatement was one of their main strategies.  They’d start with stomping, then get into shoveling if need be, and if none of that worked, they’d break out the dynamite.
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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.

Ooops. According to my knowledge at the time, this slope was not suppose to slide. Back to Avy 101 for you Andrew...

Personally, I don’t think I can ever be educated enough on avalanches and if I ever find myself thinking that I’m too busy or already know whatever a class is covering… that is an indicator that I need to take the class. The science of avalanche forecasting and avoidance changes every year and you can just never know enough about it. Because of this, I’ve taken numerous Avalanche 101 classes, and while they seem basic beforehand, I always learn something in the process, hear new ideas or meet new people. To me, being a self proclaimed “Avalanche Expert” is the kiss of death. There is an infinite amount to know about why snow slides, group dynamics and backcountry safety, and seminars like this are an excellent way to stay on top of it.

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]]> http://straightchuter.com/2009/01/faith-base-skinning/feed/ 2 http://straightchuter.com/2009/01/pnw-practices-random-acts-of-avalanche-destruction/ http://straightchuter.com/2009/01/pnw-practices-random-acts-of-avalanche-destruction/#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:00:34 +0000 Andrew http://straightchuter.com/?p=1852 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.

 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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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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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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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.

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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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.

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.