philfort

It's not too hard to find your own secret ice stash by looking at a topomap - sometimes the terrain is pretty obvious - that's how this place was "found". I think people need to do more exploring and less whining.

"I ... hopped my "frank and beans" right onto a big ass "

Inspired by MattP and Wotan's climb of Sloan Peak a few weeks ago, 4 of us set off up Bedal Ck to find some turns. Like Matt and Wotan, we were able to drive all the way to the trailhead (~2800ft), though this time there was about 8 inches of freshiez on the road. We were able to put on skis at about 3200ft, but still lots of logs and alder, and devils club glades. We made it to the basin in about 3 hours, using the worst possible route (advice: keep on the north side of the creek - we took this on the way out and it was much quicker). Skied west-facing slopes up in the basin in a foot of powder, in the sunshine, in the solitude, under the 2000ft cliff on the west side of Sloan - verrry nice - the best skiing of the year for all of us I think. Temps were nice and cool, lots of spindrift blowing off the peaks, but not very windy in the basin. Wow, there is a lot of water ice on that side of Sloan.

You should send this to NEWSTIPS so the media can finally understand climbing.

I dunno, maybe he's too happy for you, but I appreciate that Renner is a hiker/skier/mountaineer, unlike the other meteorologists. He even wrote a fairly useful book about mountain weather in the northwest.

Pretty sure it's Buck Mtn.

I would think maximum snowpack depth would be sometime in late March or April.

Real Ultimate Power

Last Saturday the gate closed at 5:30pm to uphill traffic.

Why not check the telemetry for nearby areas: http://www.nwac.noaa.gov/nw05000.htm 77 inches at Grace Lakes near Stevens 84 at the base of Baker

Here's what looks like an old FAQ (since they mention SA *might* be turned off in the future): http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/gpsfaq.txt 1.3 What accuracy can I expect? 1.5 How do some users get centimetre accuracy? 2.3 Why does the reported altitude vary so much? I use a Pete Bros. analog altimeter. Often I don't take it because of the weight - I should probably get a watch. But it is easy to calibrate, just turn it.

I don't think GPS altimeters are nearly as accurate as a (properly calibrated) barometric altimeter. That's why some GPS's have baro altimeters in them (like the Summit). But I guess they're quite a bit better than they used to be now that selective availability is off.

I have a friend who takes his dogs along with us often, and occasionally they get bloody paws, and leave red spots all over the snow. It seems to bother the humans a lot more than the dogs - the dogs usually aren't even aware of it.

Hmm, it only snowed a few inches Friday night to Saturday morning. I think they are just lazy.

Cool.... check out this link mudslide

Yikes - what sketchy conditions. We skied at Rogers earlier this month. We set off a few small slabs, which turned out to be harmless in the end, but they totally caught us off guard - we really misjudged the conditions. Glad I don't plan to be skiing in the BC interior again this season...

Going to Paradise to try to get dragged around by kites... hope there is some wind.

I don't think the pass has been plowed through the winter since about 1990 when the price of timber made it feasible cost wise (?) I'd be up for a spring trip up there... I wonder if a snowmobile would make it a reasonable wknd trip..

Looks like... Maude?

Those high talus benches are pretty characteristic of the Forbidden - Sahale area... so I figured it was something in there, and someone already mentioned forbidden and boston. The other one... the peak in the right background looks like shuksan, the one right center looks like triumph. On the right looks kind of like the southern pickets, but then that couldn't be Triumph way back there. Is it Paul.. Bunyan's Stump or Pinnacle?

The other one... I dunno. It looks like something on the Inspiration ice cap area, but I can't tell what. What's the pointy summit in the background, would that be too big a hint?

Sharkfin tower? (the ridge photo)

no I can see how it looks like Verboten... those hanging talus slopes over on the right... my first guess too. But then, there's that big bergscrhund there too. Is it the peak you did in the Coast Range with Fred? Rusty peak?

Yup, it is Fisher.