The crappiest conditions ever?
The crappiest conditions ever?
Went skiing up at Alpental today. It is a small area with 2 lower chairs and one old-school 2 person upper. The lower mountain has 2 groomers with a few other ungroomed short shots. The upper mountain is where the business is with about 5 double blacks, a few blacks, no intermediate runs, no grooming and a huge black and double black side-country (when open). The signature upper-mountain run is called International. Super steep in sections, and just plain difficult and draining in others, it is a relatively long, snaking thigh blasting run. At the steeper sections, after big PNW storms, avalanches are triggered by the ski patrol, keeping everything safe. PNW avalanches are a different animal than say Colorado avalanches. Colorado avalanches are explosive, cascading ordeals of pow whereas PNW avalanches are a slow puking of heavy chucks of shit. The good thing about the PNW is that the snow is so wet it will come in in buckets and stick to slopes typically unskiable in CO. At least to a point. At a certain point even wet snow succumbs to gravity. The debris field of a PNW avalanche is a nightmare of blocks piled on top of each other.
The thing about the PNW is the re-freeze. You rarely get light snow. No it usually comes in wet and heavy 10" blankets accumulating on top of heavy 10" wet blankets. A typical storm will be on the threshold of snow temps (about 35 degrees). But then rain and a cold front inversion will come through, freezing everything solid at certain elevations of the mountain. And with inversions you get heavy fog layers. Such was those conditions today.
So I did a few warmup runs lower mountain on icy groomers. Pretty fun, the mountain was all but evacuated, which gave room to run, but not quite satisfied I thought I'd check out the upper mountain. So up I go the lonely lift. No one in front or behind; just me and my lonesome. The temps start rising as I move into a fog layer. Then I rise above the fog layer. As I get off the lift and head for International there is a sign stating, "Icy Conditions; Long Slides possible." Cool. Icy I can handle. But in reality what I would encounter was nothing short of a telemarker's nightmare.
The drop in for International is pretty severe. Where you come in it is easily 45 degrees, hugging hard right near side a solid 50. Most people traverse across a whooped cut trail to the lesser steep far side, which is about 30 and bumped out, but the real skiing is right along the stupid steep near side. It is as steep and exhilarating as any inbound skiing I've ever experienced. This part of the run was as advertised, meaning icy. Dicy as hell, you really had to be careful to avoid a huge tumbler slide that would probably result in a hospital stay, but it was pure technical skiing A-game high stakes fun. Then I dropped back into the surreal fog zone and everything went to shit.
Skiing in Washington can sometimes be a matter of, "what could possibly be a worse condition." This was that day. As I entered a heavy fog, pick turning I suddenly hit the avalanche field, and all the chunks were frozen solid. I couldn't see 3 feet ahead, but it was clear there was no direct way down. And I still had 3/4s of run left before I'd see a groomer. And there was no-one around. Apparently I was the only idiot who hadn't got the message: this run was pure hell.
For the next 45 min I'm blindly and hyper-tentively switchback traversing across large frozen blocks of shit, trying to find some short runs where I could manage a few parallel stem Christies; I would dare to telemark in this. At least once I front pointed a block so hard it knocked me backwards. Things that were happening to my skis were beyond any control and flat out scary. All I wanted to do is get to the groomer without getting crippled. I was calling out for Mommy. If I hurt something bad I'm not sure anyone would come by nightfall. And even if they did, because of the fog if they were 10 feet away it would be like two ships in the night.
They say breakable crust is a telemarker's worst nightmare... No, this was way more. I have to admit I was genuinely concerned for limb. Why the run was even accessible is beyond me; it should have been roped off. In Colorado it would've been. But this is just another day in WA.
The thing about the PNW is the re-freeze. You rarely get light snow. No it usually comes in wet and heavy 10" blankets accumulating on top of heavy 10" wet blankets. A typical storm will be on the threshold of snow temps (about 35 degrees). But then rain and a cold front inversion will come through, freezing everything solid at certain elevations of the mountain. And with inversions you get heavy fog layers. Such was those conditions today.
So I did a few warmup runs lower mountain on icy groomers. Pretty fun, the mountain was all but evacuated, which gave room to run, but not quite satisfied I thought I'd check out the upper mountain. So up I go the lonely lift. No one in front or behind; just me and my lonesome. The temps start rising as I move into a fog layer. Then I rise above the fog layer. As I get off the lift and head for International there is a sign stating, "Icy Conditions; Long Slides possible." Cool. Icy I can handle. But in reality what I would encounter was nothing short of a telemarker's nightmare.
The drop in for International is pretty severe. Where you come in it is easily 45 degrees, hugging hard right near side a solid 50. Most people traverse across a whooped cut trail to the lesser steep far side, which is about 30 and bumped out, but the real skiing is right along the stupid steep near side. It is as steep and exhilarating as any inbound skiing I've ever experienced. This part of the run was as advertised, meaning icy. Dicy as hell, you really had to be careful to avoid a huge tumbler slide that would probably result in a hospital stay, but it was pure technical skiing A-game high stakes fun. Then I dropped back into the surreal fog zone and everything went to shit.
Skiing in Washington can sometimes be a matter of, "what could possibly be a worse condition." This was that day. As I entered a heavy fog, pick turning I suddenly hit the avalanche field, and all the chunks were frozen solid. I couldn't see 3 feet ahead, but it was clear there was no direct way down. And I still had 3/4s of run left before I'd see a groomer. And there was no-one around. Apparently I was the only idiot who hadn't got the message: this run was pure hell.
For the next 45 min I'm blindly and hyper-tentively switchback traversing across large frozen blocks of shit, trying to find some short runs where I could manage a few parallel stem Christies; I would dare to telemark in this. At least once I front pointed a block so hard it knocked me backwards. Things that were happening to my skis were beyond any control and flat out scary. All I wanted to do is get to the groomer without getting crippled. I was calling out for Mommy. If I hurt something bad I'm not sure anyone would come by nightfall. And even if they did, because of the fog if they were 10 feet away it would be like two ships in the night.
They say breakable crust is a telemarker's worst nightmare... No, this was way more. I have to admit I was genuinely concerned for limb. Why the run was even accessible is beyond me; it should have been roped off. In Colorado it would've been. But this is just another day in WA.
Last edited by Harris on Tue Jan 02, 2018 10:18 pm, edited 3 times in total.
- fisheater
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Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
Glad you made it out okay, Harris. I am right about your age, and don't believe I would be behind you in years. I have to give you credit, your ego was bigger than your brains, but other then some mommy moments you're okay.
Over 50 and still a bad man, that's pretty good!
Again, I'm glad you didn't get hurt. It's good to be a little tough when you're a little old. You know what else? It probably still won't impress the ladies!
Over 50 and still a bad man, that's pretty good!
Again, I'm glad you didn't get hurt. It's good to be a little tough when you're a little old. You know what else? It probably still won't impress the ladies!
Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
What I did to get down that damned thing definitely wouldn't impress anyone. I felt like a totally flailing newbie.fisheater wrote: It probably still won't impress the ladies!
I'm 49 BTW. Meaning I'm still pretending I'm not 50. But that reality is getting tougher to avoid. Inside I'm still 25, at least until I stand up.
In all my years of telemarking I only once gained direct attention from a lady. But I was so winded I couldn't respond. It is probably a good thing. There might have been a screw loose. So is our sport. I guess we just do it for ourselves. Sigh...
Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
If I have one skiing dream left it is to go heli-skiing and totally own a super steep spine line in AK. Probably beyond my skills' pay grade, but one can dream.
- Woodserson
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Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
Not going to lie, sounds pretty crappy.
- lowangle al
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Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
At least on avy debri you kan usually take your skis off and walk down. On breakable rust you may sink too deep to walk
Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
Thanks for the read, Harris. Hatched in Steamboat, came of age in Gunnison, you’re now a PNW skier?
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Call it Nordic Freeride
- satsuma
- Posts: 188
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- Location: Walla Walla, WA
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Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
We normally get dry, powdery snow in the Blues until mid-March., but it was raining there last Friday, I did not try to ski last weekend. It's not worth skiing on untracked rain crust. This Friday, more rain forecast there, along with White Pass (in the Cascades), and Mt. Spokane. I would expect the same at Snoqualmie.
The Walla Walla area had 1000 homes without power last Friday due to freezing rain. The snow (not normal here) is disappearing, but the streets here are too dangerous for me to walk without traction devices (which I don't have).
The Walla Walla area had 1000 homes without power last Friday due to freezing rain. The snow (not normal here) is disappearing, but the streets here are too dangerous for me to walk without traction devices (which I don't have).
Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
Yep. And hopefully an eventual Maine skier/local. My sister lives in Bridgton. After visiting her a number of times to ski with her kids up at Shawnee Peak, Sunday River, Loon etc. I think Maine is the place I want to end up. It is kinda like Colorado before it got all dicked up by rich a-holes.anemic wrote:Thanks for the read, Harris. Hatched in Steamboat, came of age in Gunnison, you’re now a PNW skier?
Last edited by Harris on Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: The crappiest conditions ever?
It is looking like it will be a really weird year. Unless of course you live in Bellingham and can hit Mnt. Baker.satsuma wrote:We normally get dry, powdery snow in the Blues until mid-March., but it was raining there last Friday, I did not try to ski last weekend. It's not worth skiing on untracked rain crust. This Friday, more rain forecast there, along with White Pass (in the Cascades), and Mt. Spokane. I would expect the same at Snoqualmie.
The Walla Walla area had 1000 homes without power last Friday due to freezing rain. The snow (not normal here) is disappearing, but the streets here are too dangerous for me to walk without traction devices (which I don't have).