ptavv
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Posts posted by ptavv
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Not being a stereotypical climber (I rarely climb something I'm not going to descend on my skis), I'm not familiar with what's standard and not among mountaineers.
So, do climbers typically take avalanche beacons with them when climbing in avalanche prone terrain? If no, why not?
Forgive me if it's a stupid question, it's just something that the recent tragedy on Mt Hood has made me curious about.
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I know the freezing level is supposed to rise to 8k feet on Wednesday (according to NWAC anyway). Not sure how that'll impact the search for them.
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I skied from the top of Palmer to the base of Timberline after skinning up yesterday.
Snow was hit or miss. Top half of Palmer (the actual snow field) was half exposed rot ice (east side of the field) and half drifted windpack (west side of the field).
Definitely got a few scratches on my bases (nothing some wax can't fix) down lower.
Once down past the midway into the gullies that are wind sheltered it was nice a buttery. At about 7k feet or so, the snow became much heavier and wetter than what was from 7-9k ft.
Good day to get out and stretch the legs though. I think things on the east side of the mountain would be better due to the significantly less severe winds. Most of that stuff is out of reach with the roads though (routes like the Spur are about all that are doable over there with White/Newton/Clark canyon access closed). Anyone have recent Cooper Spur beta?
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Oh yah, some beta that I forgot to add.
Everything high up is super windswept. The Palmer field is intermittent wind buff and rotten ice that has no snow on top of it. The wind buff predominates making the snow pretty good, but there is plenty of crap there.
The "ribbon of death" would have been fantastic if the cat hadn't messed it up. As it was it was good, there was plenty of space. It's more filled in than its been since July, and I was able to ski all the way to the bottom aside from having to cross ~3 dirt patches to avoid rocks or rot ice.
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Figured I'd post this here since I'm bored at work and lurking.
Mt Hood got about an an inch of precip in water equivalent between Tuesday afternoon and about 2 AM on Wednesday. That normally translates to about 10 inches of snow or so.
With high hopes plans were made to hike up to the Palmer snow field (and higher to the Hogsback field if it had filled in some) this morning with my buddy Andy. Given that Andy is a notorious flake and that it's still October I wasn't suprised this morning when he bailed on me at 5 AM. I was up, the gear was ready so I made it a solo trip.
Trip stats:
Total vertical gain: 4.5k vertical
Total distance travelled on ascent: ~3.5 miles
Beginning elevation: 5,500 ft
Top elevation: 8,600 ft
Yes those don't add up. The top 1,500 feet are the Palmer snowfield, which I skied once, skinned up again, and skied a second time (also why the total distance is longer)
Avg wind speed at 6,000 ft: 20 mph (it was significantly higher on the snowfield)
Some pictures:
The rest area in Govt Camp looks promising (this is at ~4k ft)
Weird picture that I took which for some reason shows a great white orb that didn't exist
Cool shadow of me (or not, whatever)
The lower canyon, looking very filled in. Being sheltered from the wind made it the best skiing to be had (it was actually quite good, except for one thing [Read on!])
Purple skins, neon green skis, and orange bindings, quite the fasion (you can't see my baby blue boots that bring it all together).
Your hero (or not, whatever -- Yes I forgot chapstick)
The goods from the top of the Palmer Snowfield (didn't go higher because it was just rotten ice above it, completely wind scoured)
The cat they sent up to plow access to the top of the Palmer Express completely obliterated the nice fresh snow in the center of the aforementioned "best skiing of the day." Awesome. Still plenty of good snow to be had in here though.
At the bottom I asked some nice old dude to take a picture of me before I took my skis and shit off. He managed to somehow capture me with my eyes closed (not really sure how that happened).
More pictures here: http://www.vanillawinter.com/Timberline1025/
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I know I'm new here and have no track record. If you want to check into me I've posted for a long time on the TGR boards, same user name.
Would definitely like to get rid of these so I can pay off the skis I bought to replace them
They've been drilled once for medium Fritschi Freerides. Skied less than 20 days.
They're in great shape, there was one base that got scored on a rock and the p-tex got turned up (no core was exposed). The shop at Alta fixed it up great and it's completely flat, and if you didn't know it had happened probably wouldn't even notice. It's in the third picture.
Dimensions are 116 - 83 - 106mm (tip - waist - tail).
$125
tops
bases
p-tex repair
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If you have a meadows season pass you can even jump on the lift at the bottom of Heather for a quick trip back to the parking lot.
Stash the pass on your way up ('trollers won't like to see you OB with a pass) though.
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if you can ride a bike up the pearly gates you deserve to be sponsored
Do climbers typically take avy beacons?
in Climber's Board
Posted
The practicality of it in the particular situation that arose on Mt Hood wasn't really the issue.
I've been buried in a slide, and was dug out unhurt because I had a beacon on. I wear it most days when I'm skiing in bounds, and every day when I'm skiing out of bounds. The question arose in a conversation I was having with a friend of mine about the Hood situation and whether they could use beacons to search for them. If nothing else it would provide an easier method of locating people in a snow cave if the entrance wasn't easy to locate.