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jordop

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jordop said:

Snow was absolutely mind bogling, 180cm new hellno3d.gif Bloody well waist deep everywhere....

...We skiied the west face of Lesser Flute about four times -- huge, 800 foot run about 45 degrees at the top and nothing budged rockband.gif

 

OK, can I just say hellno3d.gif? How could 180cm of fresh possibly be safe to ski, especially at 45deg.? I guess a lot has to do with chance, but you said that you checked the snopack and couldn't find any instabilities? I'm really curious as to why this could be? The first thing I learned about avys is to not go out in the backcontry when there's a 180cm fresh dump! hellno3d.gif Anyone?

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dalius said:

jordop said:

Snow was absolutely mind bogling, 180cm new hellno3d.gif Bloody well waist deep everywhere....

...We skiied the west face of Lesser Flute about four times -- huge, 800 foot run about 45 degrees at the top and nothing budged rockband.gif

 

OK, can I just say hellno3d.gif? How could 180cm of fresh possibly be safe to ski, especially at 45deg.? I guess a lot has to do with chance, but you said that you checked the snopack and couldn't find any instabilities? I'm really curious as to why this could be? The first thing I learned about avys is to not go out in the backcontry when there's a 180cm fresh dump! hellno3d.gif Anyone?

 

Your right, i'll go back up and trigger one for you wave.gif

 

That's why there was no one else there moon.gif If you know the area, the west face of Lesser Flute is windswept compared to the NW face, which is a huge terrain trap.

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Ya, you can't compare coastal snowpack to Interior or Rockies. It is quite common at Whistler to recieve a huge dump, have the sun come out now and then, and the temp stays relatively consistent, and, as a result, cyrstals get rounded well and one is able to ski stuff like I did yesterday without too much of a worry. We were pretty cautious though fruit.gif

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jordop said:

Ya, you can't compare coastal snowpack to Interior or Rockies. It is quite common at Whistler to recieve a huge dump, have the sun come out now and then, and the temp stays relatively consistent, and, as a result, cyrstals get rounded well and one is able to ski stuff like I did yesterday without too much of a worry. We were pretty cautious though fruit.gif

 

This is another reason why I, personally, think the coasts/cascades/sierras are a much better winter playground than the rockies et al for skiing. They yell all about their hero snow, but the fact is it's deadly, blows away easily and doesn't fall very often.

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jordop said:

Spent the past three days camped out in the shit behind Whistler in Flute Bowl. Snow was absolutely mind bogling, 180cm new hellno3d.gif Bloody well waist deep everywhere. We had the place to ourselves mostly and set up a big camp (but for some reason I decided to bring a bivy sack instead of a tent confused.gifcantfocus.gif)

 

The biggest surprise was how solid everything was; not a single slide seen, not a single bad layer. We skiied the west face of Lesser Flute about four times -- huge, 800 foot run about 45 degrees at the top and nothing budged rockband.gif

 

Take the day off this week and head up, it's still coming down hard bigdrink.gif

WEATHER: The epic storm last week dumped 100 cm of storm snow in the alpine. Snow squalls dropped another 20 cm of over the weekend. Temperatures cooled somewhat while winds remained moderate to strong. The cool showery pattern will persist through Thursday with a weak trough Wednesday enhancing the flurries. Snow squalls will pick up above 1000m in the afternoons from heating.

SNOWPACK: The snowpack remains fragile with numerous easy shears observed within the storm snow Sunday. Easy to moderate shears persist down 75-150 cm on the old mid February surface hoar and facet layer creating a concern. These weaknesses will persist, especially at shallow snowpack sites in the Purcells. Wind slabs have been reactive at treeline and in the alpine. While the storm snow is strengthening, the shear on the surface hoar will do so much more slowly. The surface layers will warm and weaken on sunny aspects as the day progresses. Expect a crust to form as temperatures fall in the moist layers increasing strength.

AVALANCHES: The avalanche cycle continued over the weekend. Slabs were triggered by vehicle, skier, explosive and natural triggers. Unfortunately, one avalanche claimed two lives on Monday.

FORECAST OF AVALANCHE DANGER UP TO WEDENSDAY EVENING (March 19th)

ALPINE - High

TREELINE - High

BELOW TREELINE –Considerable

TRAVEL ADVISORY: We’ve all been forced to stay out of the mountains while the storm pounded us last week. Now sunshine and powder look inviting but the danger remains high. Situations like this often lead us into decisions that in hindsight appear to have been foolhardy. The most common time for an accident to occur is in the first few days after a big storm.

 

i guess avi experts know nothing hellno3d.gif

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glassgowkiss said:

i guess avi experts know nothing hellno3d.gif

 

First hand observations mean a lot more. I witnessed (and had one come *real* close) several slides on a day where the danger was rated as "low." Luckily I knew better and was watching my ass in spite of the "low" danger.

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