danhelmstadter

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - ski from 7.8k on NF Date: 1/26/2009 Trip Report: I left around 8 Saturday morning, and skied a nice direct route down into the White Salmon valley - then skinned, and booted up the knarled lanch wrecked way to the col. I continued up the clilmbers right side of the lower face on a several day faded boot pack. At the top of this section - the steps disapeared, and I climbed my way up a 50ish dg glacial ice section to gain the snow above, I threw on the skis and skins and skinned over several dubious crevasse bridges to the conector gully which was full of blower pow. I put the pons back on and made my way up variably wind affected snow. Around 7k I found more crevasses, and several sections of exposed glacial ice - these were easily circumvented on climbers right. Continueing up, the snow thinned and changed to hard ice/rain crust at around 7.8k. There may have possibly been more wind mank way over on climbers left, but I know I will return under fatter and more favorable conditions, so I cliked the skis on there and descended the not to bad at all snow. The fat pow in the connector gully made me smile. Then some good pow/windcrust turns down the lower glacier to the col. I avoided most crevasse/ice shenanagins in this section by sticking to the skiiers right. Back at the col - the fall line didn't look to hot at all (debris central the entire way). So i traversed over a little to the north, and skiied my way down through the trees on generally breakable crust and mank to the valley floor. Shuksan was looking esp. pretty - It was a short slog back to the resort and pleasent surprise to meet some fellow climbers along the way who had attempted the White Salmon, but turned around due to crappy snow conditions. Cloud cover was on the slow increase throughout the day, and lower clouds were rolling in. I was surprised to find that my dog had escaped my motorhome and was stiring up quite a commotion at the resort, luckily all turned out well, and I picked her up just as the lifts were closeing from some nice people who had fed her sausages all day. Today (the 26th) I went for a tour around Table Mountain and Ptarmagain Ridge. I found fabulous dust on crust in sunshine on SW faceing slopes. I did trigger a AS-SS-R1-D1-I on a sw 40dgish roll. This is a good indication of how future snow will bond if it comes in at a similar temprature. The conditions on many aspects are a hard crust covered by about an inch of faceted snow. The shallow wind pillows were all reactive. Then I skiied a ENE aspect on table. I found horrible breakable crust high on the slope, then crust to windbuff pow lower down.

i've heard the mustang ranch near reno has some good deals

Dberdinka, it was pretty solid yesterday except for in the trees where it was pretty manky and would be a posthole-sufferfest, although it has settled a lot over the last few days, and with the forecasted lowering fr levels, It should be easy on foot this weekend.

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - fisher chimney climb / white salmon ski Date: 1/22/2009 Trip Report: I left the upper ski area lot around 430am, and skiied supportable and tracked crust to Lake Ann, where I enjoyed a resplendant Mt. Baker illiminated by the sunrise. I had never been to the Curtis Glacier area before, but the way was obvious past Lake Ann. My objective was to ski the Fisher Chimneys, or Curtis Blow if the chimneys were not in. As the chimneys came into view, they looked thin, and extrememly runneled and debried out. Upon reaching Curtis Glacier, I skiied to the south end of the glacier to get a better view of Curtis Blow, which was very thin - too thin to be in - for skiing. Haveing attempted another route on Shuksan a few days prior - just to be shut down cause of lack of snow in the route, I did not feel like throwing in the towel and skining back to Austin Pass, the Fisher Chimneys deserved a closer look. Gaining the base of the chimney really brought the massive extent of the avi destruction into scale, huge debri piles everywhre. The chimney itself was filled with icy lanch runells, and lumpy avi tormented snow. As the chute turned right, it narrowed and steepened considerably. The first crux came into view, a 5 foot vertical rock step (from my feet) surrounded by rotten snow, and no solid holds. I checked out various alternatives, non of which posed a safer prospect. I stood there for some time, deliberateing retreat, the consequences of a slip were very grim, and downclimbing some time later would be even more difficult once the sun hit and sofented the already rotten manky snow. Finding a solid axe placement I went for it. these pics don't do justice to the exposure A little ways above I encountered a 8-10 foot 70 degree manky ice bulge. Again I deliberated retreat, but after tearing down some rotten ice and snow, found solid placements and continued up. The snow above the crux steps was more icy runnells, and lumpy debris - then with a slight change to more of a westish aspect, the snow began to show a lot of skiable promise - sporting a thick breakable m/f crust which was sure to soften with the approach of late day sun... Once at the top, I waited and waited for the sun to come and do it's work, but high clouds rolled in and foiled my plans, leaving the nasty breakable crust intact. Decideing it would be better left for good snow, I climbed up Winnies Slide, clicked into the skis and began descent of the White Salmon (north faceing). I found glorious shallow half powder and various cold snow forms includeing hard nieve, crusts, and windboard all the way down to the valley below. The sun was setting as I skiied my way up to the resort, then through the resort in darkness to my rig in the upper lot. my camera crapped out on me near winnies slide, so no descent pics

don't mean to thread hijack - but how far can you curently drive up the glacier creek road towrds helio TH ??

i like this picture - down to lift served skiing!

Perhaps I was being a bit cynical about the "garage sale". There were - I suppose deals to be had... My expectations were too high, especially since I had specific gear in mind that I was looking for - and found - but it turned out to be at the overpriced-sucker end of the price range. As for the headlamp I described, and much of the other bunk shit I surveyed -- sure you could fuck around with duck tape and glue, but I already have too much of that crap, and something like that headlamp that worked intermitantly -- may not have been an easy fix, it could'av been, but I didn't feel it was worth the gamble.

Dan - Thanks for all the info. Let's hope the road toughs it out through this upcomeing flood event.

the idea is just a fun thought - but seriously i don't like the idea of spreading plastic around the bc so i think i'll just stick with ski cuts. i had no idea that makeing such things for avi control is considered to be a felony.

How far up is the Cascade River Road Plowed this time of year?

I was toying with the idea of makeing some hardware/pvc/pipebomb type handcharges for bc avi control here in the US. I don't like the idea of spreading all that plastic around which would inevitebly happen with a pvc style explosive. Anyone know if that kind of thing is frowned upon by the forest service?

i was just at the rei "garage sale" in the ham. the opening line was hundreds of feet long. it seemed like most of the stuff on sale was broken crap that rei was trying to move for top$. - I almost bought a bd headlamp, but then noticed that it didnt work, and the tag said it goes on and off randomly -- and they were trying to sell it for 10$! i ended up finding a couple odds and ends - it was funny watching people aggressively rumage through piles of shit - feverishly scanning the sales racks which were ripe with worthless defective crap.

sweet - i'll be callin bout the helper position

I had IT band syndrome going on a couple years ago. First I tried a few shots of cortizone, but that didn't do much - I thought my knee was screwed for a while - then I went to PT - he showed me some important stretches quad/ham/ amnd most important -- find a surface about as high as your pelvis, then bring your leg up while bending it, and put it on the surface so that the instep of your foot, and the inner side of your leg is faceing up. (your knee should be bent too)and lean forward until you feel stretch on the outside of your thigh just below the glute. do three sets of 40 seconds with this stretch and the other two. That stretch was money for me. I also balanced out the musculature of my lower quad by doing a lot of jump rope -- so i developed the inside of my lower quad, that in theory helped to pull my patella over to the inside thus reducing friction on the IT. Good luck.

That bald Korean dude (always at the gas station in marb.)is the man, his smile lights up my day whenever I pass through.

from the nws discussion --- "THE GUST FACTOR WITH MOUNTAIN WAVE EVENTS CAN BE SIGNIFICANT. THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THIS SHOULD BE A MEMORABLE AND HIGHLY DAMAGING EAST WIND EVENT FOR THE CASCADES AND FOOTHILLS. THE LAST TIME I REMEMBER SOMETHING OF THIS MAGNITUDE WAS THE EVENT BACK IN EARLY DECEMBER 2003...WHICH BROUGHT WIND GUSTS TO 90 MPH AROUND ENUMCLAW AND MAPLE VALLEY."

Dan - thanks for posting those updates. So about how far is it from eastside closure to the top of WA pass? I've never driven that section, and i'm haveing a tough time finding that info... Also, is there a bunch of decent BC ski accsess over towards Mazama and Winthrop? Lookimg at a map - it looks like the relief is there, but road access, private land etc... seems to more often than not - complicate optimistic armchair terrain scouting. My vehicle is on it's last legs, otherwise i'd just drive over and have a look for myself. thanks

not so much worried about theft as i am vandalazation. i musta heard some news story a while back about a rash of vadalazations - specifically targeting vehicals with american lps. I didn't really care then cuz i was in colorado. now that i'm near i'm wonderig how deep (or if at all) the current anti-american sentiment is up there. most people were extrordinarly nice the last times that ive been up there; definetly a place i want to return to.

That's what i'm talking about - maybe it IS canadian like. Where in canadia; and under what circumstances was your vehicle burgluralized? My sophistimacated security syestem -

I've heard all kinds of horrible stories about people comeing back to a BC TH parkinglot to find their vehicles vandalized, stolen, robbed... This is such a general question - of course these things can happen anywhere... I don't have a redwings, avs, or bruins bumper sticker, but the Oregon plate is a dead giveaway... Is this a bogus concern?

The magic 30dg number is what I learned in my basic avalanche course, i'm certified AIARE level 2 (American Institute for Avalanche Research and Eductaion). I do trust the 30 dg threshold for sure, although there are variables which can definetly make lower angle terrain dangerous - such as traveling in the runout zone of avalanche paths. Many days during the winter (particularly continental snowpack), you can be walking on flat terrain, and remote trigger an avalanche 1000s of feet away, if you are in the path, you could be a gonner. - Wet slabs can cut out at angles down to 25dgs - Also most avalanche fatalities occur in very small slides. You could be safe on a 28 dg face, then go over 33 dg roll for 10 feet that has a crevasse at teh bottom, and trigger the 10 foot zone and get carried into the terrain trap of the crevasse. I would reccomend to everyone buying an inclinometer and becoming familiar with using it. Of course slab avalanches can occur on steep terrain, and of course it does not take a thick slab to knock you off your feet. 45dgs is prime slab avi terrain, although: past 55dgs slab avalanches are much less likely to occur, as that kind of terrain tends to sluff off new snow during and just after storms, but - sure slabs do form on truley steep terrain - esp with maretime snowpack. Of course there can be massive cornices and windslabs over very steep terrain as well. One always has to evaluate that kind of terrain for themselves. There are many good books out there; I like the avalanche handbook. The best you can do to stay safe is to educate yourself as best you can, pay attention to the NWAC, evaluate the conditions yourself, and then make your decsion while paying attention to protocal for traveling in avi terrrain. Often people who know that there is a weak layer or instability within the snowpack ski 30+ terrain anyway, they accept the risk.

John, thanks for the photos. I will visit the memorial, what a terrible accident. It's probally safe to say that the slab was a wet slab (can initate at 25dgs) - given the time of year, I am still not convinced that the Roman Wall has slab potential during the cold periods of winter, all-though it very well may, and even if it is not quite 30dgs - it sure is close. Very interesting pictures of the Park Headwall. It's noteable that in both images - the fracture line was well below the steepest upper part of the headwall. Also - the wind lip is evidence of where the heaviest wind transport took place (the part of the headwall directly below and skiers right of the true summit does not have a windlip - and the fracture does not appear to extend that far over. It would be interesting to dig into the NWAC's archives to see what they had to say about the snowpack during that period.

I will measure the angle next time i'm up there, my guess is that there are a few spots which hold snow steep enough to slide, and also it probally gets loaded enough to considerably ramp up the slope angle. Also wet slabs can cut out a few dgs lower than the 30dg< non-wet slab dg angle. (I'd estimate the RM to be around 25 dg, prolly falling down to low 20s lower down but with a section or two around 30 at the steepest point higher up. Point release, and loose wet slides can definetly slide at a much lower angle. The Park Headwall on the other hand is fairly steep, but i dont think quite steep enough to not pose a considerable avalanche threat after storms. (very steep stuff gen. 55+ usally self avi controls by constantly sluffing off) anyone have any insight or experience about avi potential on the PHW?

I recently noticed their web cam some days is pointed in the wrong direction. Kinda frustrateing given the level of development and traffic on the mountain. I'm sure they'll get the camera glitch worked out soon.