The Big One
The predictions so far are playing out.
It’s been snowing most of the week, and it’s still coming down in buckets out there.
Three storms, back-to-back. I’ve got over 4 feet in the untouched areas of my yard, and the front porch looks something like this:
I got up yesterday morning and hiked a run at snowbowl before work, and it was over-the-boot skinning. Once I pointed it downhill I was easily over my knees.
And we’ve got another 1-2 feet in town since then. I can only imagine what’s up at snowbowl right now. Snotel is reporting 45 inches since monday in the inner basin, and snowbowl is reporting 57-82 inches from the storm.
We’re expected to get another 5-10 today and another 5-10 tonight before it peters out on saturday sometime.
The fortunate part is that my work is closed for the second time so far as anyone can remember. The unfortunate part is that snowbowl (and the road up) is closed. So, I’m sitting here trying to figure out where we can go skiing today that meets the following criteria:
- Fairly close proximity to a road
- Steep enough terrain to be able to ski in several feet of powder
- Tree skiing so the avalanche danger is low
The Avy danger is getting higher by the minute, so a lot of stuff that we usually ski is out. It’s bad enough at this point the even crossing an avalanche path is a big no-no. The glades will be phenomenal, but accessing them, and finding some friends to share the epic task of trailbreaking is going to be the tough part. I’m figuring on twice the normal approach time for anything we do today, and there’s a good chance of our tracks being fairly well filled in by the time we get back to the approach.
Unfortunately, there have been a couple incidents already with people getting lost off-piste at snowbowl. It’s getting very epic out there, and it sounds like the rest of the western states are getting the same thing as this system is simply hammering everything in it’s path.
Enjoy the weather, but be careful out there. I’m gonna go find some breakfast and see what I can rustle up for some fun today.
we were 2.5 hours ‘skiing’ out of southside yesterday only to be greeted by a S&R vehicle waiting next to my car at freidlein. they were not happy to see us, despite our evident glee at finally being back down. once we told them we had probes, beacons, shovels, etc, the mellowed a bit. but it was a slog getting out… really not worth it, even for the glades in second, as there were very few legit turns to be had. once you dropped a knee you were waist deep and nearly stopped. be careful if you head out, anything with pitch enough to be skiable will definitely be a slide potential, too.
- rockychryser
Link | January 22nd, 2010 at 10:40 am