Tag: avalanche
1 – Above Average Skiing
Part 1 in a 10 part series on some of my personal avalanche avoidance theories. These are not meant to replace avalanche classes and mostly fall under the “Human Factors” category. Human triggered avalanches are far more likely to occur on a 38-40 degree slope than any other. The numbers drop off rapidly on both […]
Belayed Ski Cuts
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 […]
Cornice Stomping
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 […]
Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop
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 […]
Faith Base Skinning
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 […]
PNW Practices Random Acts of Avalanche Destruction
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 […]
The Extended Column Test (ECT)
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 […]
Developing an Eye for Angles – Part 2
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 […]
Developing an Eye for Angles – Part 1
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″ […]
Deciphering the Avalanche Rose
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) […]
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