No Mammoth This Weekend

Unfortunately, due to not being able to get out of work until 4 this afternoon and the LA posse deciding to leave early for Mammoth, I was going to be stuck making the drive by myself. As much as I love to ski, doing the drive solo just didn't seem worth it. 16 hours of driving round-trip, dealing with both San Diego and LA rush hour traffic, and storm conditions on the way up were too much for me. Maybe I'm just a pussy, but if I went, I foresaw myself being completely exhausted (and in no mood to have any fun) both while up there and after coming home.

Gear Review: REI Double Diamond Ski Pack

This is almost a great little ski pack. At 2000 cubic inches, it is biggest enough to take out on most daytours. I was able to carry food, avy equipment, a fleece, hat/gloves, water, skins and a basic first aid kit. With all of those, the pack is completly full. Personally, I prefer to have some extra space in case I need to bring extra clothing or water along. If you haven't noticed it from my other posts, I like to be prepared for any situation that might arise. So when I get another daypack, I plan on getting something slightly larger.
The pack fits great and is very comfortable to wear, both while skiing up and down the mountain. It has an external shovel blade pocket and attachments to hold your shovel handle and/or an ice axe. My favorite feature was the back panel zipper. It was so convenient that I almost never loaded the pack from the top. The pack also comes with a 2 L Nalgene Hydration pack that is integrated into the right shoulder strap.
As good as the pack was, there were several quality issues that were highly disappointing. First, the hose on the Nalgene pack has a fitting which disconnects (by pressing a button) from the bladder. When the pack was full, the hose would disconnect from the bladder about 25% of the time. As you would expect, I found this extremely annoying when to get a drink, I had to stop skiing, take off the pack, open it up and reconnect the hose to the bladder. Next, 2 weeks ago, the connection between the bladder and the hose started leaking and I lost all of my water at the very beginning of a ski tour. REI ended up replacing the Nalgene hydration pack with a Camelback bladder that seems to be better built. (So far, no leakage!) Finally, at the beginning of my tour this past Sunday, one of the connectors for my chest strap ripped off the pack. If you've ever seen me, you know its not because I was overflexing my pythons!

Overall, I can not recommend this pack. For day tours where you are not taking a lot of gear with you, it is a great pack. However, I expected more from REI in terms of quality. You do not want a pack that is going to fall apart on you in the backcountry.

Note: I just returned the pack to REI. True to their reputation, there customer service was excellent and they gave me a full refund when I couldn't find another pack in the store to replace it with. They even let me keep the Camelback hydration bladder/hose.

Its Snowing in Mammoth!!!!

....and that's where I'm going to be this weekend! I just finished looking at the latest weather forecast. According to the NWS, they are supposed to be getting upwards of 3 ft of new snow. It sounds like this storm will be wetter than recent ones. The snow level is supposed to be around 8000 ft dropping to 5500 ft later tonight. I won't be getting there until late Friday night. So I'm sure it will be tracked up by Saturday morning. Even so, the skiing should be great.

Backcountry Ski Trip Report: Baden-Powell/9088 Trip Report

I joined up with Dave Puzo (Carlsbad) and Scott Siegrest(Hermosa Beach), whom I met on Telemark Tips, to ski Mt. Baden-Powell this past Sunday. We met up at the Vincent Gulch parking lot parking lot at 7:45. From there we hiked about 1/3 mile along the Angeles Crest highway to the North Gulley(shown by where creek runs down on topo map). The highway is normally just closed in the winter. However, I doubt it will be open at all this summer. At one point, half a lane's worth of the highway (and the supporting ground underneath) has given way and slid down the mountain.















Due to the steep pitch in the gulley and the main bowl, we decided to leave the skins in the car and boot-pack up. However, the snow level in the gulley was far below normal. (We could see the creek running. From what I hear, there is normally 10-15 feet of snow in the creekbed from accumulated snowfall and avalanche runoff.) Since we also decided to leave the rope in the car, we were forced to abondon our plan to hike up the gulley when we got to a sketchy section about 20 minutes in. At that point, we were considering turning back and skinning up the main trail that starts at the parking lot. But as always, once you commit to one course of action, it is difficult to admit defeat and turn back. So we decided to climb the west side of the gulley until we made the ridge and then followed the west ridge up. The climb up the ridge was a bit sketchy. The rock was very crumbly and the mud was fairly loose. Once we started hiking up along the ridge, we wished that we would have brought our skins along. The pitch was low and the snow was deep. The extra 1 lb that the skins weigh seemed like a small price to pay considering we were sinking 1-2 feet into the snow with every step.

Once at the top, we found that the west ridge actually had lead us to the unnamed peak 9088 vice Mt Baden-Powell. We momentarily considered continuing on to Baden-Powell. But after 5 hours of hiking up, we were just too tired. Considering how tough the hike was, the ski down was surprisingly good. We skied the gulley just to the west of the ridge we followed to the top. The top layer (1-2 inches) that wouldn't support us in our ski boots, was more than enough to support us on our skis going down. For the first half, it was almost as if we were skiing a groomer with 2 inches of loose/wet snow on top. About 2/3 of the way down, avalanche debris in the gulley forced us into survival skiing mode. Once past the avalanche debris however, the snow on the last section, although thin and wet, was surprisingly good. We were able to ski all the way to the road.

Recommendations: If you do plan on going up the main north gulley, I recommend that you bring a rope. We wish we would have brought it so we could have proceeded with our orginal plan. In the gulley that we skied, the cover was thin for the bottom third. So this storm coming in Tuesday/Wednesday should help to fill it in. Due to the steep canyon walls and it being an obvious slide path, I would wait a while to ski any of the gulleys. While we were sitting on the top of Burnham eating lunch, Mt Throop caught my eye. It looks to have some nice steep north/northeast facing slopes. They might be worth checking out.

Avalanche Activity: Most of the avalanches we saw were wet slides on west facing slopes. They looked to be several days old and a number had slid all the way to the ground. We experienced some sluffing of the top layer (~2 inches) at a few places. But there was nothing signficant while we were there.

Avalanche Safety Course

At the very beginning of this ski season, one of the promises I made to myself was to take an avalanche safety course. Previously, I had done a little backcountry skiing (twice in high school) and had skied quite a bit of powder, but I didn’t have a clue when it came to whether the slope I was on would actually slide. Looking back at some of the things I had done in the past, I knew that I was lucky not to have gotten hurt before.

Back in college, I did the standard semester abroad my junior year. I lucked out and ended up studying in Grenoble, France during the winter of 1999. That turned out to be one of the biggest snow years Europe had in recent years. Consequently, every weekend turned out to be a powder weekend. If you don’t know, there is no such thing as avalanche control in Europe. You go off-piste at your own risk. That winter, we used what we called the “Three-Track” Rule. It stated that if there were three or more tracks going off piste, it could be assumed that any avalanche that could take place, would have already taken place and it must therefore be safe. Not very smart, I know. But we were just reckless college students then.

Even though taking the avalanche safety course was one of my top priorities at the beginning of the season, I kept on putting off taking the course. I never had a sense of urgency. After all, one of the people who I normally skied with was very experienced in the backcountry. I trusted that he knew when it was safe to be out and when it wasn’t. I conveniently ignored the fact that no one else in our group had any significant experience. Furthermore, I bought into the argument that the western Sierra snow pack was more stable and not as prone to avalanches.

Eventually, I decided that these excuses just didn’t hold up to closer scrutiny and demanded that I learn more about avalanche safety. No group should rely solely on one person’s judgment. Each member should have sufficient knowledge to form their own opinions and to contribute to group decisions. If you’re just depending on one person, who is going to back them up when they make a mistake? What would happen if they got hurt? Besides the group responsibility issues, the western Sierra snow pack argument didn’t really hold up either. Two weekends ago we were skiing on 2.5 feet of super dry snow that was more like what you’d find in Utah than the Western Sierras. Despite the fact that we didn’t set off any avalanches, the snow that weekend was definitely susceptible to sliding. Again, nothing happened to us. But sooner or later everyone’s luck runs out. So I finally decided that it was time to give up a weekend of skiing, take an avalanche safety course, and take personal responsibility for my own safety while out in the backcountry. I no longer wanted to rely solely on luck and my friend’s judgment.

So I spent last weekend (Saturday through Monday) taking the Sierra Mountain Center Avalanche Level One course that was being given in Bishop, CA. The course was taught by S.P. Parker. He opened the course off by telling us that the course was not going to give us the one answer. In other words, nothing we were going to learn was going to tell us that a slope was 100% safe. There are simply too many factors that influence whether or not a slope will slide. Instead, the course was designed to teach you the right questions to ask yourself so that you could make an informed decision and minimize the risk of your or your party getting caught in an avalanche.

On the first day, we spent the morning in the classroom discussing case studies, types of avalanches, rescue procedures, how terrain influences the potential for avalanches, and routefinding. The afternoon was spent in the field looking at the actual terrain for signs of avalanche danger and practicing using our beacons. I found this really useful since I had never had much success practicing with my beacon before. (I’ve got an Ortovox M2. While its range is better than the digital beacons, it definitely takes more practice to use it effectively.)

On day two, we again spent the morning in the classroom covering additional case studies, group dynamics (what leads groups to make poor decisions), influence of weather, and snow pack theory. In the afternoon, we drove to Table Mountain and dug snow pits. S.P. showed us how to identify the different layers and to perform tests to determine how well the different layers had bonded to each other. I was surprised when S.P. said that he didn’t dig snow pits very often. He only considers them to be one of many factors that help you to determine what level of avalanche danger exists. He emphasized that other factors such as slope angle, wind loading, weather, sun exposure, terrain triggers, how the snow feels (slabby, soft, crusty, etc) and signs of recent avalanche activity should all help you to form a good picture of the degree of avalanche danger present. You only need to dig a pit when you are still unsure after looking at all these other factors.

Day three was spent in the field near Mammoth Rock. We spent the morning examining the terrain for signs of avalanche danger (recent slide activity, wind loading, slope angle, etc), discussing safe routes, and digging another snow pit. In the afternoon, we got in a short run (8” of excellent fluff with wind-pack in places) before practicing multiple burial (2 –3 people) searches. I found the multiple burial scenario much more challenging. Personally, I had a difficult time with my analog beacon (M-2) picking out where each victim was. I realize that I still need to a lot more practice with this scenario. We also learned that team organization plays a big role in coordinating search efforts to make sure that everyone isn’t converging on the same victim.

So was the course worth the $350? Definitely! You can’t put a price on your life. But like S.P. said in the beginning, it’s not the answer. If you are looking for the definitive safety guarantee, you are better off giving up backcountry skiing and staying at a resort. As an avalanche safety instructor should, S.P. comes off as being very risk averse and prudent. In the course, he would never say that a pitch is completely safe to ski down or skin up. It always felt like the textbook answer was to either go up or down the windblown section with no snow on it. But that is precisely because avalanche safety is not an exact science. It's about minimizing risk intead of eliminating it as well as knowing how much risk you are incuring and being comfortable with that. I do feel that the course gave me the tools to better judge how much risk I am taking on each run. Right now, I know the questions to ask and which factors are most important. The next step is to gain more experience so that I can better weight all of these factors to form a more accurate picture.

Lessons Learned from Last Weekend

1. Bring a Repair Kit: A number of articles I've read have said to always bring a repair kit with you when going into the backcountry. I have yet to bring one. But this weekend, my buddy Carl was evidence of wisdom of those articles. On the first day out, the loop at the front and the tail clip of the same skin broke. Luckily, we had some duct tape. But Carl was reduced to attaching his skins to his skis by wrapping the front and back with duct tape. So if I don't want Murphy to strike me, I guess I'll have to be responsible and put together a real repair kit before I go out for another tour.

2. Never Feed Carl Whole Heads of Garlic: One of the side dishes at dinner Friday night was whole heads of roasted Garlic. Apparently, one of garlic's side effects is bad gas. Carl was farting at a rate of once every 10-15 minutes throughout the entire day Friday. Because Carl was graciously letting Nellie and I break trail, it didn't affect us too much. But at one point Carl told us that he really wished he was in better shape because when he'd fart, he didn't have the energy to speed up and escape the smell. As we were heading back to the car at the end of the day, I let Carl go ahead of me at one point. Sure enough he let one out and I realized what he meant. It smelled like I had just been doused with some sort of garlic mist. I was in awe...not sure whether to be disgusted or to admire Carl for his amazing powers.

Backcountry Ski Trip Report: The Good Snow Karma Continues

They say that good things come to good people. I guess that Carl, Nellie, and I have been doing something right since our good snow karma continued this past weekend. This weekend was perhaps the best skiing I’ve ever had and everything just seemed to work out right.

Our original plans were to head out Friday morning and spend Friday and Saturday night at the Pear Lake Hut in Sequoia National Park. As luck would have it, the Sierras were hit by unusually cold temperatures and heavy snows from last Monday until Sunday. As a measure of just how cold it was, the snow line reached to just inside of the park entrance, or 7,000 ft below the elevation we'd be skiing at. Due to avalanche conditions and a potential lack of visibility, we had already decided to spend the weekend doing day trips instead of heading out to the hut. When we got to the Wolverton parking lot, a ranger told us that Evan, the hut caretaker, had radioed in reporting 3 ft of new snow at the hut. There was no way any of us were up for breaking trail through that much snow. So we were happy with our decision. Plus, with this much good snow, there was no need to go all the way to the hut to get good turns.
So we set off down the trail from Wolverton. The 10" of light fluff covering the skin track told us the day was going to be great. We ended up going to "Alf's", a new area that Nellie had found earlier in the week. Just before we reached the intersection of the Pear Lake and Panther Gap Trails (bottom of the Hump), we broke off to the right heading for the ridge you would see if you were looking back as you were going up the Hump. Within 2 hours of leaving the parking lot, we had reached the top of Alf’s(8600'). Apart from a meadow on the far right portion of the ridge, all of the runs are in the trees. Moving from right to left, the runs get steeper and longer, increasing from 700' to 850' of vertical. As soon as I pointed my skis downhill, I knew that we were in for something special. The snow was thigh deep and super dry...dryer than anything I've every experienced in Utah. We were getting face shots with every turn. I had never experienced anything like this. I've skied lots of powder in my life. But this took the whole floating sensation to another level. It was so light that skiing in it was effortless.
On Saturday, we decided to ski 9975. Overnight, we had gotten another 8" of new snow. To minimize trail breaking, we followed the Pear Lake trail for as long as we could. Eventually, we had to break off. Breaking trail through 2.5' of snow, no matter how light it is, really sucks. But 4 hours after leaving the car, we finally made it to the top. We skied the north facing trees rather than the main bowl. The skiing there was even better than Alf’s. The snow was deeper and the runs were longer (900' vertical). In this case, the face shots were big enough to blind you momentarily. Luckily, the Sequoias are widely spaced and the woods are fairly clean. For Nellie and Carl (both telemarkers), the biggest surprise was that they now had to focus on when to breathe. They were getting so low in their turns that the snow would choke them if they breathed at the wrong time. We got in 3 runs on 9975 before darkness and aching thighs forced us to head out. I’d like to give a big thanks to the snowshoers who broke trail heading towards Panther Gap earlier that day. They saved us a good half hour on our trip back to the car.
On Sunday, we again skied Alf's. There was only 3" of new snow overnight. But the snow we got Friday night and Saturday had pretty much filled in our old tracks. The snow was still very good, but it had settled a bit since Friday and didn't seem quite as deep. It very well could have been just as good as Friday. But the previous 2 days, especially Saturday, had completely altered my inner sense of what constituted great powder. Runs we skied included Huck Me, Humpy’s, Tweaker, and The Bean. We got 4 runs in on Alf’s before we decided to head out.
As luck would have it, we ran into Chris (Nellie’s girlfriend) on the trail on our way out. She was coming back from some cross country skiing with a friend. Being the saint she is, Chris volunteered to run shuttle for us to allow us take a run down to Lodgepole. The run to Lodgepole is about 850’ of vertical. The first pitch was short and the trees were tight. I didn’t really get into a good rhythm. The entrance to the second pitch was a bit sketchy. There was still quite a bit of scrub brush to ski around. But after the first 15 yards, it was wonderful. There was enough snow to cover up all of the fallen trees and rocks that normally cover the pitch. Now you could just ski over them without having to worry about breaking you leg. The trees were a little bigger than at 9975 or Alf’s. Consequently it seemed that it was wider open under the canopy. I took advantage of that and just made big powder turns all the way down, enjoying my last face shots of the weekend.

All in all, it was perhaps the best weekend of skiing I’ve ever had. From the first face shot on Friday to our sweet Lodgepole run at the end of the day on Sunday, everything just seemed to go right.

What Boots to Use: Alpine vs. AT

I just took up backcountry skiing this season. When I was buying my equipment, I really didn't ponder the question of whether to use my alpine boots (Solomon X-Screams) or to buy a pair of AT specific boots. With all the climbing involved, I knew that I wanted boots that were much lighter than my alpine boots.

I've realized that for most people, the question of what type of boot to use is not so clear. A number friends who have been talking about taking up AT have said they want to use their downhill boots. They figure that if they are going to expend so much energy going up a mountain, they don't want to be limited by their boots while going down.

I can understand where they're coming from. If I had asked that question in January (after my first time out with my new Garmont G-Rides), I probably would have said that alpine boots were the way to go. My trip to Sequoia over MLK weekend was my first time out in those boots. Going up hill in them great. They were warm, fit well, and I really liked how much the boot flexed in the walk mode. However, going downhill those first few times was a completely different story. I was used to big, stiff boots. So after I pointed my skis downhill and my AT boots started flexing like crazy, I didn't know what to do. I was either too far forward or too far back on my skis and the skis just didn't want to turn (or at least not when I wanted them to). I fell as many times that first day as I normally do in a year. So at the end of that first day, I was asking myself if I made a mistake buying AT boots.

But since that first day, the boots have really grown on me. Just because the boots are softer does not mean that you can't ski aggressive terrain with them. It just requires you to be softer and subtler in initiating your turns. You have to pay more attention to staying centered on your skis rather than leaning forward. When I used to hear people say that you don’t need stiff boots to ski powder, I never really believed them. After all, I had stiff boots and they were great in powder. But I understand what they mean now.

Getting back to the original question about whether to even buy AT boots, I see a couple of big questions that need to go into the decision. First, how far do you have to skin before you can ski downhill? If you have to skin for 2 hours before you even begin going uphill, the lighter AT boots are hands-down better. On the other hand, if the parking lot is at the base of the mountain, then the added comfort of AT boots going uphill wouldn't be so important. Secondly, how steep of terrain are you talking about skiing? The way I see it, unless you're going to be hucking big 30 footers, a good pair of high performance AT boots (like the G-Rides) should be able to handle anything. I've skied a couple of 35-degree chutes with them and they were great. So like all complicated questions, I guess it depends. But I'm plenty happy with my G-Rides.

If you have an opinion on this subject, I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Note: If you do end up buying AT boots, contrary to what I did, I'd recommend taking them out for a few days of lift serviced skiing before heading out into the backcountry. There will be an adjustment period. The last place you want to go through that painful adjustment is on a beautiful powder filled bowl that you just spent 2 hours climbing up.

Backcountry Ski Trip Report: Pear Lake Hut

I had my first Pear Lake Hut experience this past weekend. As I promised everyone who I went there with, I'm going to start off by saying that it was a terrible place, with terrible snow, and 2 terrible caretakers who will stop at nothing to make your stay there miserable. So if you don't get the point, DON'T GO TO THE PEAR LAKE HUT! Its not worth the 5 hour slog it takes to get there. Now if you've already decided not go there, please stop reading this article and never again come back to my blog. For those of you who want to hear all the details of my terrible Pear Lake Hut experience, keep reading.

This was my first time out on a backcountry trip that was longer than a day. To be honest, even though it was only a hut trip, I did have some anxiety about it throughout the week. Despite Nellie (see Wolverine man article) having sent out a good packing list, I still really didn't know what I would need. How much food was I going to go through each day? How many changes of clothing would I need? I didn't know. I wasn't sure whether to bring a full-sized backpack or to go with a daypack and attach stuff sacks to it. I decided to go with stuff sack option and packed a ton of food and twice as much clothing as I needed.

We set off from the Wolverton parking lot (at Sequoia National Park) on Friday morning. The weather was great. It was sunny and mid 40's. We followed the Pear Lake Trail up to the top of the hump. I had taken a portion of this trail before to go up to ski 9975. But the trail is much more challenging with a 40 lb pack on your back. From the hump you follow the trail down to Heather Lake and then follow the yellow triangles to the hut.

As much as I love skinning and the whole being out in nature thing, I go backcountry skiing so I can get good turns in. So while most of the party kept moving towards the hut, John, Tyler, and I made a short excursion up to the Soccer Fields (Just past Heather Lake and above the trail to the right). It was heavenly. The skin track was already in place. Apart from 2 sets of tracks from the previous group at the hut, we were making fresh tracks all the way down. We had about 8" of nice creamy powder. The runs started out as a wide open low grade bowl (~500' vert) and finished up with about 300' vertical through steeper terrain with some trees and rocks. It wasn't Utah light. But it was pretty damned good. After one run on the Soccer Fields, we left to join up with the others. We were giddy with the knowledge of just how good this weekend was going to be.

After another hour on the trail, we arrived at the hut. If you're expecting luxury accommodations, you're going to be disappointed. It’s definitely not a luxury condo in Vail. Its basically one big common room that is used for eating, socializing, and sleeping. Besides beds (with mattresses), it’s main amenities are an indoor toilet, a wood pellet stove for heat, solar powered lights to use at night, and two Coleman propane stoves to cook on. For a complete list of what the hut has and what they recommend that you bring, see the website. (http://www.sequoiahistory.org/pearlake/pearlakehutequip.htm).

On Saturday, we left the hut at 9 AM to head up to the top of Skier's Alta (north facing portion of Alta peak that you ski from the hut). It was another gorgeous day…sunny and high 30's. It was 2000 vertical feet from the hut to the top of Skier's Alta and it took us 1 hr 45 minutes to make it up. On the way up, Miles, Evan and I were all salivating over some of the chutes that hadn't been skied since the last storm. We settled on skiing the Hourglass Chutes for our first run. It was about 500' vertical and true to its name, it was wide open at the top and bottom with a bottleneck in the middle. I was the 3rd one into the chute. Apart from some wind pack at the top, it was great skiing. From the bottleneck to the bottom, it was steep (30-35 degrees?) with about 8-10" of great, untouched powder. After getting to the bottom and looking up to see our turns, it really did look like a scene out of a heli-skiing video.

The rest of the way down is composed of two wide-open bowls, one above the other. The first bowl is definitely low grade while the second one is a bit steeper. The snow on both was excellent. After getting to the bottom we stopped for lunch. At that point, John, Nat, and I decided to head on over to Pear Lake and check out Milo's Couloir to see if it was skiable. Unfortunately, when we got to it, we found that due to its more easterly exposure, it had crusted over and wouldn’t be any good.

Just when we were skiing back from the base of the couloir to the lake, I literally fell through a hole in the snow. Everything below my arms had broken through and I was held up by bracing my back and skis against the sides of the hole. Looking down into it, it was at least 10 feet deep below me. Luckily for me, John was still above me when I fell in and was able to pull me out. It was one of the only times in recent memory that I have truly been scared while on skis. If I had fallen in, I would have been there until they could have come back with ropes to pull me out. Thankfully I wasn't by myself that day.

After that adventure, we skinned up a short, more northerly section of the same ridge. Unfortunately Miles and Evan deemed the snow pack to be too slabby to try and ski the main face. So we skied back down to the lake following our skin track. I didn’t see it, but I was told that Nat had a nice collision with a tree on the way down. John and I finished out the day with another run 2/3 of the way up Skier's Alta. It was every bit as good as the first.

Besides great skiing, we also ate and drank well at the hut. When we got back, we found a full vat of River 'Ritas (Beer, lime-aid, and tequila) waiting for us. Earlier in the entry I know I sounded like I was complaining about all the weight we were carrying in. Well, I now admit that it was our own doing. That's what you get when you bring in enough booze (several 12 packs of beers, 2 bags o' wine, and a few bottle of whiskey) and food to insure that despite burning several thousand calories greater than normal per day, you come back 10 lbs heavier. It didn't hurt that all the meals from Chris's heavenly pasta to Kinga and Dave's Rice and Chili were absolutely delicious.

The next morning, Miles, Evan and Alisha left the hut to return to civilization. We still had one more day to rip it up. We set off again for Skier's Alta. This time, I pushed a bit harder and made it up in 1 hr 15 minutes. Sunday definitely wasn't as nice as Saturday. It was overcast and a bit cooler. But the snow was still great. We actually all got a decent sunburn on Saturday. SPF 15 just didn’t do the job. So it was probably for the best that it was cloudy. We spent most of the day hitting various chutes and doing our best to ensure that the next party at the hut wouldn't be able to find any untouched powder. We actually quit skiing around 3:30 that afternoon. I admit that I was the one who said that I didn't want to take another run…although I’m sure that if I had said I wanted to, the others would have resisted. So we went in and treated ourselves to some Gluhwein (hot wine with oranges, cinnamon and cloves). After a few glasses, we decided to go ski another run on the Front Yard (small hill right in front of the hut). I was in such a good mood that I was contemplating taking my headlamp out and going back to the top. Thankfully, I sobered up after a run on the Front Yard and decided that wouldn't be so wise. Instead, we treated ourselves to a round of beacon sniffing. That's where we hide an avalanche beacon and practice finding it using our own beacon. This was my first time using mine (Ortovox M1). It took a while before I remembered how it worked. I realized that I need to practice using it some more.

I must admit that my only regret for the trip was that my friend Carl couldn't make it. The previous Monday, he was the victim of a road rage incident. I'm not sure of all the details. He didn't want to tell me. All, I know is that a crazy Armenian guy (now in the custody of the LAPD) did some serious damage to his face. Despite the fact that Carl wasn't physically there, he was definitely there in spirit. Trying to discourage any of the girls from joining us on the trip, he was kind enough to make them absolutely paranoid that an avalanche was going to kill us all at any moment. Thank you Carl! I found it especially ironic since Carl was the one who told me that the Sierra snow pack is incredibly stable and that you really don’t need to wear an avalanche beacon more than a day after a storm. (Note: I'm by no means advocating that avalanche safety isn't important. He just had them convinced that the hut was as dangerous as a 35 degree slope the day after a 2 foot dump.) Another funny Carl story that came up was his trip into the hut last year with Nellie. Apparently they decided to do a moonlight headlamp trip into the hut on a Friday night. What could go wrong did go wrong. They got lost a few times and it ended up taking them close to 5 hours just to reach the top of the hump. Apparently when they got down to Pear Lake (~5 AM), Carl was delirious (from lack of sleep) and didn’t see where Nellie went when he was crossing Heather Lake. What he missed was that fact that Nellie avoided a weak spot in the ice. So when Carl went, he fell in up to his knees. It’s pretty funny now. But I’m sure Carl didn’t find it so funny back then. Enough with Carl and on to the rest of our story.

The next morning when we woke up it was raining. Yes...raining. The day before, we had heard that a storm was coming in and the snowline was supposed to be 8,000 ft. With the hut being at 9,200 ft, we thought we'd be fine. Despite the fact that it briefly shifted to snow after we left the hut, most of our descent was through the rain. It took us about 1.5 hours to make it back to the top of the hump and another hour to make it down. Once we got to where the Pear Lake Trail me the Panther Gap trail, I was amazed by how much the snow had melted. Countless rocks and logs that were once snow covered, now blocked the trail. The moss on the trees was now a bright green. It looked as if spring was on its way. All in all, my first Pear Lake trip was another great ski experience. I look for to joining Chris, Nellie, Tyler, Dianna, Dave, King, Miles, and Nat again next year. Lastly a big congrats to all the girls who joined us on the trip. Despite Carl's best efforts, they were real troopers and did great. In my book, they have all earned the right to assume the title, "hardcore skier chick."

Note: If you didn't already realize it from everything that followed the opening paragraph, the Pear Lake Hut is not in fact a terrible place. I just promised everyone that I would spread some negative press about it to keep it from getting too popular.

Baldy Awakens From Her Slumber...Well Sort Of!

Ever since I moved to San Diego from the East coast last spring, I've been looking forward to skiing Mt Baldy (great bares bones mountain located just outside LA for those who aren't from Socal) this year. Due to a mild winter and Baldy's near complete lack of snowmaking, I have yet to ski there this year. However, my buddy Tyler made it up there this Monday after they finally opened the Thunder Mountain chairlift. The following is his report:

"It was a typical day at Baldy; they didn't open the summit chair until noon. A few folks hiked to the summit out of frustration. Dianna decided to join along. She had brought her skins and climbed up the groomer to get some time in on her skins before this coming weekend's trip to Pear Lake.

We spent most of the morning doing laps on the beginner chair. When they finally opened the summit chair, I took a run on the one groomer that was open from the top. On the second run down, I ducked the ropes and got to ski an untracked run from the top. The first half of the run was fun. There was actually dry powder if you can believe it. The second half was rock and snow covered ice. My skis will never be the same...

At the bottom, Dianna and Laura skied on and finished out the day while I read the paper.”

Note: Tyler fails to fully explain why he finished the day out sitting in the lodge, drinking beers and reading the paper. Besides being greeted on the second half by rocks (which were ever so kind to his skis), he was also greeted by the ski patrol who took away his lift ticket. So it appears that the good luck we had at Snow Summit on Saturday had ran out.

John Nelson: The Wolverine Hunter

My friend John Nelson just got a job checking wolverine traps in the Sierras. It might not sound like an exciting job at first. But he is basically getting paid to go out on backcountry ski tours with a buddy of his to check these traps. He is living the dream while the rest of us are sitting in our offices bitching about how we are stuck skiing at Snow Summit! Granted, winter camping isn't exactly luxury. But he is living the dream. Seeing as though he was out this past weekend, I asked him to give us an update on what he's been up to. He sent me this entry. Apparently the Blackberry reception in Sequoia is better than I expected:

Dateline J.O. Pass, 9400'

Its cold as shit and has snowed 16". Three of us spent two nights out in order to check a bait station that was set up just northwest of Mt. Silliman. It took one day to walk in and find a place to camp. We spent the second day checking the trap, which is a motion sensitive camera pointed at a big chunk of venison. Everything is about eight feet off of the snow. The bait is on a pole that is wrapped in barbed wire in order to grab hair off anything that climbs the pole. We spent a total of about 20 minutes at the trap, which was actually a long time because it was too cold to stand around.

We got some pics of a marten, a jay, and a squirrel and no hair samples. The experiment was a success though because the camera worked when we tripped the infrared beam, which is a good indicator that the other 18 stations are also still working.

We ended up getting two phenomenal runs in over the course of three days, Alta gold for sure, but had to skin back out to Lodgepole because the snow was so deep and the walk long and flat. I have a few trips left to do and am headed to Onion Valley on March 1st to do some east side trips.

Ski Report: Surf N' Ski

As I said two posts ago, I've been going through some difficult times recently due to not skiing the previous two weekends. So by the time this past week came around, I was pretty much desperate. I was going to go out and get some turns in no matter what. Unfortunately, none of my friends were up for any real trips. Girlfriends, visitors from out of town, or side jobs tracking wolverines took precedence. So I resorted to pimping myself out on Telemark Tips (www.telemarktips.com) to find someone who was interested in doing some backcountry skiing in the Eastern Sierras. "Single white male, AT skier, 22 years experience downhill, 5 days backcountry, enjoys steep couloirs and long walks on the beach, willing to do anything to join party of experienced backcountry skiers for weekend in E. Sierras." Amazingly enough, my post got lots of looks but no offers.

Rejected by all of the free-heelers on Telemark Tips, I turned to my next best option. My friends Tyler and Dianna were planning on going to Snow Summit for some night skiing on Saturday with Dianna's cousin, who was in town visiting from Massachusetts. After getting spoiled by all of the great early season skiing at Alta, Snowbird and Vail, I told myself I wouldn't sink to the level of skiing at Snow Summit. But like I said, I was desperate for some turns. So it appeared that this was to be my fate for the weekend.

Sitting in my office Thursday, I remembered one of the important life lessons I've learned in the Navy. While I was a Midshipman, I spent 5 weeks one summer on the Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Houston. While on board, we were lucky enough to pull in to Pattaya Beach, Thailand for a port call. I had only been on board for 2 weeks before we pulled in. But they had been out for a few months already and really needed to blow off some steam. I won't go into any details. But I will just say that I was scarred, yet utterly amazed at what great use they made of their time. While there, the junior officers let me in on their informal liberty rules: 1. Always seek to elevate. 2. When you crash and burn, regroup, and elevate. What they are basically saying was live life to the fullest. Find a way to squeeze the most fun into whatever you are doing...even if it involves skiing at Snow Summit.

What relevance did that have to this weekend and how was I going to elevate? The title of the entry pretty much gives it away. But one of the life-goals I said I was going to accomplish at some point this ski season was to surf and ski in the same day. That is a quintessential Socal experience. There is probably no other place in the world where doing that is so easy. So I met Tyler and Laura (Dianna's cousin) at San Onofre at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. The waves were a little on the small side (2-3 ft and mushy). But we all managed to catch some good waves and have a great time. I've got to give a big hand to Laura. It was her first day ever on a surfboard and she actually stood up and rode a wave on the second one she tried catching.

After spending 2 hours surfing, we took off for Tyler's place in Laguna, picked up Dianna, and headed up to Snow Summit. The drive up there was actually a real pain. It took us 3 hours to get there and the roads weren't even that bad. I attribute this to a combination of typical LA traffic on the freeway and LA drivers not having a clue how to drive in snow once we were in the mountains. If there were any snow on Mt. Baldy at all, the drive alone is reason enough to go there. We arrived at Snow Summit around 5 PM. Snow Summit has a $40 ticket that is good from 3-9 PM. So as far as ticket prices go, it’s not outrageous.

Once we were on the mountain, we actually had a fun time. It's small and the terrain isn't all that interesting. But it did have good snow and moderately pitched terrain that was good for cruising. The mountain was nice enough to groom in between the jumps in the terrain park. So we enjoyed ripping big turns in between the teeny boppers playing in the park. Truth be told, the whole experience reminded me a lot of the Friday and Saturday night ski club trips we used to take to Greek Peak and Holiday Valley when I was in junior high and high school. Back then I was one of those kids lining up to hit the jumps trying to pull the biggest daffy or backscratcher. I have to admit that things have changed a bit since then. The jumps in the park are now man-made and much bigger than the ones we had. When I was that age, you were the king of the mountain if you could successfully land a helicopter or a double daffy. Nowadays, even as a kid, you have to get inverted to really impress your friends. On the positive side, instead of eating overpriced cardboard pizza in the cafeteria, we treated ourselves to pints of Sierra Nevada.

But just like in high school, the biggest thrill came from breaking the rules. Shortly after we got there, they closed all of the slopes to the skiers' right of the East Mountain Express chairlift in order to blow snow and to groom. We were eyeing it all night, salivating over the untouched corduroy, and decided to cut the gate leading to that section of the mountain at 9:15. We figured that if they caught us and took away our lift ticket, it would be no big loss. The mountain closed at 9:30 after all. About 100 yards after cutting the gate, we came around a corner and saw a snow cat blocking our path. So we turned back and hiked up into the woods to see if we could make our way around him. But just as we were approaching the edge of the woods to cross the slope up above the snow cat, we saw two guys in the middle of the slope adjusting the snow guns. So we turned back in retreat thinking that this wasn't to be our night. However, as we were nearing the gate that we had cut only 5 minutes earlier, we heard the snow cat start up and head up the hill. We immediately turned back around and made our way along the path as fast as we could. As we were passing the slope where the snow cat and the guns were, we didn't even look to see if they saw us.

The run was gorgeous...for Snow Summit standards. We were skiing on a layer of fresh, soft, untouched corduroy. Adding to the thrill of breaking the rules were the snow guns that were still going at full blast the whole way down. We really couldn't see very well and were praying that they didn't have any hoses crossing the slope. We never would have seen them. Thinking we hadn't been detected, we came across 2 snowmobiles coming up the hill on the last pitch. Luckily they really didn't care as we both kept going and they didn't turn back. We took one more run that night. But that run was definitely the highlight. What I feared was going to be a sub par weekend turned out to be a lot of fun.

In Search of the Elusive Hardcore Skier Chick?

Being Valentine's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to devote this entry to man's other obsession...women. So I was up in LA this past weekend visiting my buddy Carl. We were out with his girlfriend, Teahnna, and were walking back to my car after eating a wonderful meal at very nice Italian Restaurant (Dolce) in Hollywood. As we're walking down the sidewalk along Sweetzer Ave past a car (I don't remember what kind of car it actually was), both Carl and I were struck by its roof rack. It was covered with stickers from a whole slew of resorts including Alta, Snowbird, Kirkwood, Squaw, and Jackson Hole to name a few. Carl turns to me and says, "I almost want to leave this dude a note suggesting that we get together for some skiing." I nod my head in agreement. Teahnna's response to this is, "What makes you think this car belongs to a guy, it could be a girl's car!" Carl and I turn to each other and just start laughing. I reply that girls like that don't exist. Carl adds fuel to the fire, saying that if she did exist, he'd be out with her right now.

Needless to say, Teahnna didn't find our comments very funny. But it does raise an important point for those of us who are addicted to skiing or any other sport where the participants are mostly dudes. How do you balance the relationship you have with your girlfriend/wife (who expects you to be home on the weekends) and that with your love of the sport (that takes you out of town seemingly every moment that you have off)? As a sub-question, should you look for a woman who shares your interests or a woman who doesn't share them, but can respect your passion for them?

I'm not even pretending that I have the answers to these questions. God knows that I am a complete mess when it comes to women! But from observing a number of relationships (friends and family, some ideal and others less than ideal) and thinking quite a bit about what I value in a relationship, I have at least developed my own opinion.

Of course, the ideal situation is to find a woman who would be driving the aformentioned car with the nicely decorated roofrack. That way she can share in your passion and you both can go skiing every weekend. As a side note, I would hope that she is either roughly as good as I am or is totally understanding if I want to ditch her on a powder day. When I get onto the mountain, I know that I become a completely self-centered asshole. I am a firm believer in the "no friends on a powder day" rule. (Sorry Dad for ditching you at Alta!) But it hurts me to wait for people while I see beautiful powder getting tracked up. So she'd have to either be good or understanding. (Note: If she'd be into skiing steeps and hucking cliffs, I would consider that a major turn on!) If she was a crappy skier who expected me to hang with her on a powder day, it probably wouldn't work. She'd probably hate me by the end of the day.

That being said, I have gradually become more realistic and have come to realize that the odds of meeting a woman who is a smart, hardcore skier chick are pretty slim. Just finding a single girl like that is tough. Every dude who skis wants to meet her. On top of that, you also have to have some chemistry-which further reduces the odds. Then you need to prevent yourself from acting like a moron and screwing it up-for me the larger concern and one which reduces the odds yet further. I know this all sounds incredibly pessismistic. So in the end you're left holding out for something you're not likely to find. So like most normal people, I think the answer is to find a woman with whom you just enjoy hanging out with and can understand your passion for skiing. Naturally there's going to have to be some compromise on both sides. So you can give up going out of town some weekends when the snow is no good. But hopefully she'll understand that skiing is a part of who you are. If she's cool and a little adventurous, maybe she'll take up the sport herself.

PS: If anyone who reads this knows if that roofrack did belong to a woman who is single, I'd indebted if you could get me her number.

Withdrawl Symptoms

I've spent the last 2 weekends away from the mountains hanging out in LA and San Diego. I was sick the first weekend and just didn't want to make 6-8 hour drive necessary to find decent skiing. This weekend, I originally had plans to go to Tahoe and ski Squaw and Sugar Bowl. Then I got a call from my buddy James on Tuesday night. At first, he said that the snow wouldn't be that great and it would be mid 50's and sunny. My answer to that was fine, we'll just approach it with the attitude that it would be spring skiing. We'll be wearing T-Shirts and skiing lots of bumps. Although far from powder, that can be a lot of fun if you go into it with the right attitude. That didn't sway him and eventually it came out that he wanted to stay in San Francisco for the weekend and go out on a date with a girl that he met recently. Not being a powder weekend and the fact that he spent the last 6 weekends at Tahoe, girls naturally won out over bumps and sun. Although disappointed not to be going up there this weekend, I clearly understand. Given the same choice, I probably would have made the same decision.

I am really hurting to get back out and get some turns in. Although I'm interested in going for a tour next weekend, what I really want is some lift serviced skiing. The backcountry is a great experience in that you have to work for each turn and that you're usually the only ones out there. But the tradeoff (versus lift service) is that you really don't get a lot of turns in and you don't ski as steep of terrain.

On the positive side, this past weekend was a lot of fun. I visited my buddy Carl in LA, got my butt kicked surfing and brewed my first batch of beer since last July. It will be a Belgian Red Ale in the style of Rodenbach and should be available on draft here in San Diego in another 3 weeks.

Backcountry Ski Trip Report: Red Mountain and Panther Peak

Last weekend (1/28-29), I again made the trek up to Central California to do some backcountry skiing. I'll be honest, the skiing wasn't very good. In fact it was pretty bad. But like all difficult things, it was a formative experience and I learned a lot. The story is best told by breaking it down into lessons learned.

Lesson #1: Avoid Parking in Grandma's Front Yard: On Saturday, we were planning on skiing Red Mountain, which is located between Shaver Lake and Sierra Summit on Rt. 168. So we drove up most of the way the night before and decided to sleep in the back of John's Explorer. We parked on the side of the road around midnight and figured everything was fine. I guess we were a little close to Grandma's house because her dog got wind of us around 1:45. Grandma decided to come out and find out if we were ok. She was actually pretty cool. She had no problem with us sleeping there for the night. It just took away from the little sleep we were getting in the comfy confines of the Explorer.

Lesson #2: Bring Toilet Paper: I've gotten too used to staying in places that provide you with toilet paper and of course forgot to bring my own. So shortly after waking up, I had to go and do my business...toilet paper or no toilet paper. Unfortunately, there were no leaves on the ground and all the trees were evergreens. I decided that they wouldn't be too comfortable or effective. The best solution I came up with was to grass wrapped with an old REI receipt.

Lesson #3: Get a Hide a Key: We arrived at the Red Mountain trail snow park around 7:15. We then had breakfast and put our gear on. To keep us entertained, we had the Sirius satellite radio blasting tunes from the "Hair Nation" station. A minute later, John shut his door and realized that he had locked the keys in the car (they were still in the ignition) with the radio still on. So we were presented with a dilemma. Do we go on the ski tour or do we get the door opened? Rather than getting a professional, we decided to try and open it ourselves. Picture John standing on top on the roof of the Explorer using one of his skis as a lever to pry open the door with me trying to jam my ski pole into the opening John created in a sad attempt at hitting the automatic lock button. As expected, it was completely ineffective. I was really surprised that no one driving by stopped as it looked like we were trying to break into the car. Once we gave up on doing it ourselves, we decided to go on the tour and deal with it later.

Lesson #4: Usefulness of GPS and an Altimeter: Neither John nor I had ever been out to Red Mountain. John had heard about it from a friend and had read a description of it on the Sierra Club Ski Mountaineer's website. But that was about all the knowledge we had. On the positive side, we did pick up a topographic map of the area. But unfortunately, none of the trails were labeled on the topographic map, the trails themselves weren't labeled very well, we were stupid and talked ourselves into taking the wrong trail. Not wanting to waste time, we decided to take what we thought was the geographic straight line to the trail we wanted to be on. We eventually made it onto the trail. But we were really never sure where we were on the map or how far we had left to go. We only realized that we were on the right trail when we reached West Lake at the base of Red Mountain. For me, the hike wasn’t the hard part. It was only 6.5 miles and the climb was very gradual. Most all of it consisted of following Snowmobile tracks. The hard part for me was the uncertainty. GPS would have obviously cleared that up. But as long as you have a topographic map, an Altimeter would also have given you a good idea of where of you were by telling you which iso line on the map you were on. (Note: This is similar to the technique we used on the sub where we would use ocean depth to fix our position.) If you want to do this tour without getting lost, just follow the signs at first for the Red Mountain trailhead and then for Red Mountain. (We errored in thinking that we were already on the Red Mountain trail as soon as we left the parking lot and that the first sign for the Red Mountain trailhead would loop us back to the parking lot)

Lesson #5: Bring Basic First Aid: About halfway into the hike, I got a pretty good sized blister on the back of my left ankle. When it first started hurting, it made me wish that I would have brought some mole skin with me. Luckily, John had a role of duct tape, which turned out to be an excellent temporary fix. We made a small duct tape square by putting folding one strip of duct tape in half (sticky side to sticky side). We put this against the blister and then taped that to my foot. So now you know one more use of duct tape. Despite the fact that this wasn't very serious, it did make me think about what I would do if something more serious happened. In the future, I'll definitely bring a basic first aid kit along with me and I might take a wilderness first aid course.

Lesson #6: The Skiing at Red Mountain is not worth the hike: Even if you don’t get lost, it’s a 5 mile hike to get to the top of the mountain. So it’s not easy to get to. The west facing ridge has a nice steep 400 ft vertical ridge. But it’s west facing. The north facing bowl we heard so much had a nice rocky steep section that last for about 30 vertical feet. It was followed by several hundred vertical feet of boring low grade crap. The snow at the top was very wind packed and slick while we did find some powder in the woods below.

The trip back to the car was easy. It took us 1.5 hours. Its not all downhill. So you’ll either have to put your skins back on or carry them like we chose to do. Thanks to the grumpy front desk guy at the Tamarack Lodge (just up 168 from the snow park), we were able to get AAA to send someone out to open the Explorer up for us. Amazingly, the battery was still full of juice with the radio going at full blast all day.

The next day, we skied Panther Peak at Sequoia National Park. The tour leaves from the Wolverton parking lot (just like 9979 which we did over MLK weekend). You just follow the yellow trail markers and it will guide you there. It only took us about 2 hours to reach the summit. The skin up was made easier by following John’s skin track from when he went up the previous weekend. The run down Panther Peak gives you about 700 vertical feet of low grade, north facing trees. The first 100 feet at the top is more exposed and we found it to have a very heavy crust. While not great snow down below, we had about 8” of heavy, creamy powder. You definitely had to have some speed to help you turn in it. But it was fun! By the time we went up for a second lap, it had warmed up substantially. This caused the snow to stick to our skins. In the future, I’ll be sure spray some of the Black Diamond Free Glide spray onto it the night before. Since we didn’t spray it on the night before, we used some Globstopper wax. While not totally fixing the problem, it at least allowed us to make it back up for a second run.

What is Ski Porn?

That is the question I have gotten from some of my non-skiing friends. Some didn't know what it was while others, like my mother, were offended and thought that I was actually writing a review of the latest skin flick. Ski porn is hard core skier lingo for ski videos. If you don't believe me, just google it and you'll find a whole array of good clean ski videos to choose from. Ski porn is what we, who are addicted to skiing, use to satisfy our cravings when we can't get out to the slope.

Although not the same as when you are out there yourself, its still pretty invigorating/inspiring to watch the guy or the girl in the video skiing a beautiful line in knee deep powder down an insanely steep (>50 degree) pitch in the Chugach. You wish it were you when they huck a 50 ft cliff and land it effortlessly. You're glad its not you when the landing doesn't go so smoothly and the aforementioned huck is followed by 20 cartwheels down the slope without the skis releasing. My ACL hurts just watching. Even though what they do far exceeds our abilities, it does motivate us to get in the car for that 9 hour drive in search of good snow and great terrain. So, if I offended you, I'm sorry. But ski porn is what it is and I will not give in to political correctness and call them ski movies. That just sounds so lame.

Backcountry Ski Trip Report: Weekend at Sequoia

I spent last weekend skiing the backcountry at Sequoia National Park. It was both the first time on my new AT gear and my first time backcountry skiing since 1995. It turned out to be a great weekend. We got close to 2 ft of fresh, dry powder between Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. The biggest surprise to me was how dry it was. Although not quite Alta dry, it was pretty close. It dedfinitely wasn't the typical Sierra cement I've heard so much about. The snow line was only at 3,500 ft.

Each day, we drove up to the Wolverton parking area in the morning and went out from there. On Saturday, I was a bit apprehensive about going out in the middle of the storm. But for the most part, we stayed in the trees and my buddy John (who lives in 3 Rivers just outside the park) was very familiar with the terrain and assured us it was safe. We started off on the Pear Lake trail before breaking off to go to the top of the peak we call 9979. The initial hike to the bottom of the bowl took about 3 hours. I was pleased with my stamina. I had no problems keeping up with John and apart from my lungs, I didn't feel all that tired. After another hour, we made it to the top of the bowl. It's a nice north facing bowl. Visibility in the bowl wasn't great. But we could see. Although the terrain was great (low grade bowl leading to widely spaced trees for about 900' vertical), I skiied terribly. The AT boots were a lot softer than my downhill boots. Consequently, I had trouble keeping myself centered. I was either too far forward or I was leaning back. At least on the first run, it seemed that I couldn't link more than 5 turns without falling. I fell more on our two runs that day than I had all season long combined. By the second run, I knew what to expect from the boots and started getting the hang of the new boots. I could now link 8 turns before falling.
On day two, we got off to a late start. It was decided that we had to ski with the girls that day. We didn't actually go on a full fledged tour. Instead, we again went to the Wolverton parking area and did laps up the hill directly across from the sledding hill. It was affectionately known as the "Beginner's Slope." But apart from the very top, it had a good intermediate/expert pitch. There were even a few rocks to jump. The big advantage to the "Beginner's Slope" is that its only a 10 minute hike from the parking lot. The disadvantage is that the run is only 400 ft of vertical. So it takes quite a few laps to get good vertical. We were the only ones who thought it was worth skiing. So it was completely untracked. The snow was excellent (8-10" of good dry powder). In fact, it was probably the best snow we had all weekend.

On day three, we went back to 9979. Thankfully, we were greeted with a bluebird instead of a snowstorm. When we got to the base of 9979 bowl, we headed up the trees to the right (when facing uphill) instead of skinning directly up the bowl. We made good time and broke John's record with a time of 2:59 from the Wolverton parking lot. For our first run, we headed down through the trees we had just skinned up through. That face is northwest facing so the snow at the top was already pretty crusty. But once we got further into the trees (thinner and more exposed to sunlight at the very top) it was very good. We got some excellent video. Tyler and Carl quit after the first run. Tyler was tired and Carl's boots hurt. Dave, John and I went up for another 2 runs. We did one more run in the trees and finished it off with a run in the bowl.
All together, we climbed close to 10,000 ft of vertical throughout the weekend. For that, we got in only 9 runs. It might seem like a lot of work for not a whole lot of skiing. But it was absolutely wonderful. I actually enjoy the skin up. I like the fact that it forces me to slow down and enjoy the scenery. The other big thing is that you're guaranteed first tracks. Consequently, you have none of the anxiety that you have at a lift serviced ski area on a powder day. There is no mad rush to get to the powder before its tracked up. So you just end up taking your time and enjoy the day more. I know that I was spoiled with the snow quality that we had. But we were the only ones out there and it was great.

Ski Porn Review: Altavision

Before leaving Alta last weekend, I got my hands on the first Wahsatch Powder Productions release entitled "Altavision". It is a simple, extremely low budget movie that focuses on great powder skiing. What I liked best about the movie is that they kept the focus on the skiing. The movie was basically one big face shot. It was only a matter of how you got to it: deep powder in open bowls, landing in powder after hucking a 40 ft cliff, or making beautiful turns through the trees. Unlike most other videos today, they did have a park scene, but it was kept to a minimum. Additionally, the Stevie Wonder bloopers scene was hysterical. Their crashes are far better than the standard Warren Miller falling off a lift or firemen running into each other. They are also more believable than those videos which show guys getting swept off a 50 ft cliff by an avalanche and walking away. If we got off of our butt, took a drink, and got a little courage, these were things that we might actually attempt. You can't help but laugh at each crash. The scene proves true the old saying we had on the boat, "Another person's misery is our greatest joy!"

While I really enjoyed the movie, there are a few areas that they could improve on for their next production. First, the movie needs more dialogue. It had the skiing and it even had decent music. But it would be more interesting to have a narrarator talking about where they're skiing, philosophizing about skiing powder, or even just introducing some of the skiers. Secondly, there are lots of interesting personalities at Alta and it would be cool to hear some of their stories. For example, Rob the guy I wrote about from the lift the other day was hysterical. A monologue with him just going off would be great. Finally and most importantly, the movie needs more chicks. I'm not saying that they need to blow their budget and bring in Sarah Burke or Ingrid Bakstrom, but it would be nice for them to showcase some women skiers and to let us know that they are women.

Despite my criticisms, overall I thought it was a fine piece of ski porn and highly recommend it. If you're interested in obtaining a copy, you can email Wahsatch Powder Productions at: wahpowprod@yahoo.com.

Ski Trip Report: You Win Some and You Lose Some

The old saying goes that you win some and you lose some. As ski days go, Saturday was one of the worst ski days I’ve ever had. Temperatures were only in the low 30’s. But there were high winds that made it feel far colder and turned most of the snow to absolute crap. Yes, I know that I sound like a complete west coast weather weenie and you might say that I’ve forgotten my northeastern roots. If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re absolutely right. I’m soft and I’ve been spoiled by great weather and snow conditions. But you’d be spoiled too if your ski season had gotten off to the kind of start that mine has. Anyways, now back to how the day actually went. Winds were coming from the west. When we actually got smart about figuring out where the wind was depositing all the blowing snow, we did find some good snow in East Greeley, Greeley Bowl, Gunsight and Glory Hole. But by then, I was mentally out of it (didn’t really want to be out there) and was skiing terribly. I was leaning back on my skis the whole day and had no energy in my legs.
(Lone Pine on Ridge, looking up from East Greeley)
The only highpoint in the day was meeting another one of Alta’s interesting personalities on the chairlift. I hope all who go to Alta have the pleasure of one day meeting Rob Rowley (Rob, sorry if I messed up on your name, I’m going from memory of what I saw on your pass). Rob is an absolute riot! Like Red Man, Rob looks a bit disheveled. He’s in his mid 40’s, is slightly overweight, had gloves but wasn’t wearing them, has long hair, and has a pair of fairly new Fischer skis with 25 year old bindings. According to Rob, his mission in life is to get the POW POW and to the ride the first chair every day he’s there. Like Red Man, he does not actually live or work anywhere in Utah. He’s from the great skiing state of Virginia. Within the first few minutes talking with him, he will proudly tell you that last season he got 37 first chairs, 2 seconds, and 1 third. Probably more impressive, is the 22 double double’s that he got the year before that. The double double involved first chair on both the old Collins and Germania lifts (both replaced last year with the Collins High Speed Quad). According to Rob, the difficult part wasn’t being first in line on the old Collins double. It was surviving the Chinese downhill, with some of Alta’s best skiers behind you, to the Germania lift. Legend has it that one day Rob rode up with a former US ski team member who characterized the aforementioned Chinese downhill as the scariest run of his life.

Another story Rob shared with us was the time he met the guy he was on the chairlift with. It was 10 years ago and they were both staying at the Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge. Rob checked the weather forecast at the front desk and saw that 6-8 feet of snow were predicted. He thought it was a typo. But no, it wasn’t. It was the storm of all storms. They ended up with 99” of 4% moisture content (really dry) snow. The road coming up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta was closed for 2 of the next 3 days due to avalanches. On one of those days, they did try opening the road. But after 4 cars made it up, another 4 were buried in an avalanche and it was closed for the rest of the day. Despite all this snow, Alta did manage to keep the lifts running. I jokingly asked Rob if it was deep enough to necessitate the use of a snorkel. His response was that it was it was too deep for a snorkel. It would just clog up with snow. In that depth of snow, he prefers the filtered breathing mask. He said that it’s pretty weird to be standing at the top of a slope and to see the top of the powder chest deep, 12” below your goggles. It must have been absolutely incredible. I wish I was there. But breaking first tracks on the high traverse must have really sucked!

The National Weather Service predicted 4” of new snow Saturday night with another 4-7” on Sunday morning. At 4 in the morning, I woke up and was stoked to see blizzard like conditions outside. When I woke up again at 7, I was disappointed to see that the blizzard conditions had given way to blue skies and had left only 4” of new snow. But I figured that the 4” would significantly improve conditions from yesterday and a bluebird was always good. Dad and I made it over to the lifts by 8:45. The lifts were running, but were only taking ski patrol up at that point. There was one person waiting in line before us. At first I thought it was a liftie. Then I realized it was Rob. He had just arrived at Alta the week before. So this was first chair number 4 for the season. Dad and I got chair number 3.

Shortly after getting on the lift, it started snowing again. It turned out to be another great powder day. We got first tracks on Greeley Bowl and North Rustler. At that point, we put the no friends on a powder day rule into affect and split up. Next I took a run off of the high traverse. To my delight, I again got first tracks on Stone Crusher and Lone Pine. The next run I met up with Red Man and we hit High Rustler and took a bunch of runs in Eagle’s Nest. Before taking me into Eagle’s Nest, I again had to sign one of his iron clad confidentiality agreements promising not to show anyone his secret stashes. By 11:00 (when the original forecast called for the storm to let up), the storm only intensified. With much regret, I decided to meet up with Dad at the Peruvian for lunch.
(Wildcat Lift in Snowstorm)
After lunch, we took one run before we were forced to go our separate ways, me for maintaining my sanity (I hate to wait) and him to keep from having a heart attack(trying to keep up with me). I originally meant to head out to East Greeley. But not seeing any tracks going towards Glory Hole, I hiked out there and again got first tracks. Next, I moved over to the Supreme lift and had an excellent run in Catherine’s area and got first tracks in 2 chutes in Supreme Bowl. I was elated that at 2:30 in the afternoon, I was still getting first tracks. Granted, both chutes had sketchy entrances that probably discouraged most skiers, but anyone with a little ingenuity could have skied them. By that time, there was at least a foot of fresh powder in the untracked areas. So it was real good. I finished the day with a couple more runs in Eagle’s Nest before heading back to the Peruvian to get cleaned up before catching the van down to the valley. To top that all off, the perfect day ended with one of those perfect moments. Before I caught the van down, I headed up to the Peruvian bar for a beer. I was sitting in a big soft leather chair, next to the fire, drinking a PBR, and listening to a Dead cover band. I was just sitting, smiling, and thinking that it doesn’t get any better than this.
(Grizzly Dad in Snowstorm just after skiing Eagle's Nest)

Ski Trip Report: Back At The 'Bird

I skiied the 'Bird today. I had the honor of skiing with John "Red Man" Reif, a local legend. Red Man is a 54 year old professor of Nanoscience at Duke who calls the the bunkroom at the Alta Peruvian Lodge his second home and manages to average 50-60 days per year at Alta and Snowbird. He is a living library on the history and locals' stashes at Alta and Snowbird.

When we got to Snowbird, I got the unpleasant news that the Gad 2 Lift was broken. Apparently the bull wheel cracked 2 weeks ago and a new one is being manufactured in Canada. It will be several weeks until it will be open again.

Despite that bit of bad news, the day overall was excellent. We were treated to another bluebird. Temps were in the mid 40's. We started off skiing Mineral Basin, which was in the sun in the morning. Unfortunately it took the first 2 hours of the day for the snow to really soften up. So we were skiing on frozen crud and death cookies. We should have just stuck to the groomers. Around 11, we headed for the main ridge under the tram. Red Man swore me to an oath that I would never show anyone else his secret powder stashes. So sorry, all I can do is tell you the trails we went down. (Not that I have a chance of remembering where they are next time I come back since I was just trying to keep up with him as we were constantly ducking in and out of the trees and down chutes.) Almost every run we did off the ridge, we started off going down Great Scott. Its the 45 degree slope right under the tram with a bunch of people standing looking over the edge. The entry involves a ~5' drop in. The cover was a little spotty today. So you really had to pay attention to the rocks sticking out of the snow. Once you were in, the snow was absolutely fantastic. After skiing down the main part of Great Scott, we would then traverse over to the nose of the main ridge at Snowbird. From there, we took runs down the Wilbur Chutes, Lone Pine, and Dalton's Draw. They were all very excellent and uncrowded. The only issue was the entry which involved skiing over rocks. Luckily I only ended the day with one core shot. Somehow Snowbird just doesn't agree with my skis.

Red Man might be 54 years old. But I have to admit that he skis faster than me. I prefer taking lots of short agressive turns down the fall line. He generally just makes big fast GS turns through anything. We didn't stop for lunch and skiied together until 2 when he headed back to Alta. To be honest I was kind of glad that he left because my legs were just about out of gas and I would hate to admit that I had been beaten by a 54 year old.

When we got back to the Peruvian we were greeted with the news that Alta had opened up the Baldy chutes today. I was disappointed to hear that I had missed it because they look fantastic. I've never skiied them but plan on hitting them tomorrow.