Its a Mine Field Out There

Well, this one will be short since I'm on the way out the door for some sun crust. I didn't ski on Friday due to a 'Leadership Enhancement' Course that took from 7-3, but on reading about it, it was well... explosive? The major problem we are currently facing is buried surface hoar (otherwise known as frost) which creates a beautiful reflective surface on the snow caused by sublimation (I believe thats the one...) on the surface on cold, calm, clear nights. It seems to me that you see this more commonly in Lambs and Mill Creek, but still fairly uncommon in the Wasatch. The problem is that it doesn't uniformly grow, so you end up with pockets of seriously unstable snow. From this mornings forecast:

"As forecast, yesterday was an extremely wild day. I think it set a record for the number of human triggered avalanches rep

orted to us in one day. Here is the list:

21 significant, human triggered avalanches in the backcountry

9 unintentionally triggered

7 people caught

4 partial burials including one with just his hand sticking out"

(http://utahavalanchecenter.org/advisory/slc)

Depth Hoar is not a common problem in the Wasatch because our temperatures are more moderate than you would see in an continental snow pack (like the rockies) and so we tend to be not so good at dealing with it, as the above statistics would dictate. I would say our most common snow tests are different compression tests, like the extended column test, but unfortunately they don't really work because they only tell you the conditions of the localized are that you are testing. The slope 10 feet away could have a aspect change of 10 degrees and have a completely different level of stability. So in lies the problem. Finding an accurate 'test slope' is tricky, if not impossible.

On Thursday I was out in Days/Davenport Ridge doing some death crust skiing and ventured into the North aspect of Days do a quick extended column test and the results were, well.... terrifying? The test slope I used was 38 degrees about 98ooft on a directly North aspect. On entering the test slope some things come clearly into view as I see lightnng cracks shoot out in front of me through the snow, a sure sign of propagation. Also before of the was up on about a 26 degree slope the entire new soft slab settled... a difficult experience to explain but it sounds something like an empty dumpster being dropped from 4 feet in the air. Very disturbing. Already by the time I started doing my test I was pretty certain what the results would be. Once I had completed my construction I did the test... three taps on the shovel from the wrist.... 1 tap from the elbow and like a breaking rubber band, the whole column released on a perfectly clean sheet of depth hoar. No deformation, or residual consolidation what so ever. Its difficult to explain how unstable AND unpredictable this snow pack is at the moment, but as I was tip-toeing back to my car with fear and trembling the analogy o the mine field came to mind. Our North aspect slopes are really like mine fields... the mines are where the surface hoar is buried. So if you lucky, you could ski that 38 degree slope and never hit a mine... like the 2 tracks I observed on the NNW aspect off the top of Davenport Hill. But just as likely is hitting 20 mines as you go down and releasing all 18 inches of new snow.... on the entire slope--enough to cause serious injury or death.

I'm not a professional, and I clearly don't work for the Utah avalanche center, but I am interested in the difference between the considerable rating and the high rating as I would be inclined to place a high rating on our Northerly aspect slopes greater than 35 degrees (and a considerable on greater than 30) in the common surface hoar zones which it seems they have determined to be mostly between 8-10,000ft. This task, I might add, of determining what altitudes and aspects the surface hoar is at is very, very difficult. Many pitts need to be dug, local knowledge needs to be applied based on previous years experience, and maybe some magical upper level meteorological skills.

So if

you are going off in the BC today maybe stay off, or out from below, anything Northerly greater than about 30 degrees: its a mine filed out there.

It's Hard Living in the Wasatch, Seriously.

Well I can think of lots of thing people complain about in the grand Wasatch Dessert, the people, the government, the salt lake, the bad drivers, the unfriendly neighborhoods... how about the grumpy back country skiers? You don't usually hear about that... but now and then your friend will tell you about well, in this case me...

So the day started this morning at work at about 5:30am leaving Idaho Falls for SLC and work ended at 8:30am, just how I like it. But the problem is I have to work TWO days this week Tuesday AND Wednesday, Not to mention that its like from 8-6! So Today I had to make it worth it, so we loaded the VW up to the roof with everything nice and headed for LCC. First stop, Great White Icicle. If your an Ice climber in SLC you have already realized that a moderate climate, dessert isn't really the best place to ice climb.... So when people like me start getting the itch to go, we tend to go with ANY ice at all... Maybe its on your windshield... in your glass of water... ya. Being this is my Third time on the great white this year (yes I know your thinking, has it even come in yet? and the answer is a big fat no) and by far the most enjoyable. Pitch 1 was the best its been, stubbies in slush... just about normal. 2 screws later and a lot of steep thin slush over beatiful granite and the first pitch is complete, not nearly as fun as the M3ish crack line on the left side. Pitch 2.... getting thicker! I didn't step through into the waterfall even once, AND I had 2 cam's and probably 2 more good screws, that's a record. But what is really important is not the shower of icy cold water; or the beautiful, natural sky lights made of ice that you can see the water splashing up into from below... or even the deap resounding thud of the tool sinking into the huge (and we are talking huge) de-laminated sheet of ice you have you, the tools the crampons and all the screws in, but pitch 3. Here is where it is seriously hard to live in the Wasatch. In SLC there is 1, just 1, ice climb that comes in just about every year, and yes its the great white. being that there are hundreds of ice climbers (so it seems) in SLC, it gets pretty hammered--to say the least. I can't remember a time, EVER that I have climbed pitch 3 when it hasn't been stepped out, picked out, and turned into a staircase for pointy objects, and you come to expect to not really have to swing a tool, but to just set a tool. Today, although you really cant tell in the pics, I felt like I was the only person to climb it this year (probably the case since most don't grovel through slush, rock, river, mud for 300ft to get there). Yes, it was thin, and Yes it had some holes spraying water and yet, it was probably 30 percent delammed, but I didn't see a single pick mark, crampon step, ice screw whole at all. It was immaculate, beautiful; filled with shiny deep blues, whites ,dark black with all types of shapes from perfectly smooth dinner plates, to cauliflower of all shapes and sizes to sky lights giving you a glimps to the builder inside. But as the true capitalist that I was raised as, I took my sharp objects and sank them deep into that beautiful work of art, over and over again. It was definetly the best I have ever had the great white, pitch 3. Now that I've posted this I'm sure it will quickly be destroyed by the legions of ice climbers... but I must.

After returning to the car and having the best cold cut I've ever created (really not that difficult to reach this catagory) we drove up the end of the road to start our skin into Albion basin near the gun sight. Now There may be leagions of ice climbers, but in SLC there are whole countries that migrated for the skiing, especially if you consider the wire riders. Two small things I've learned about the Back Country in the Wasatch is there are two times you are sure to get burned. Pre-season snow, and weekends. These are the times when the ignorant (yes I know, I was ignorant once too), the weekend warrior (yes I know they have a REAL job so they are forced to do things on the weekends) and the wire rider show up to hike the 1 day of the year they will actually reach the top (or in most cases far short of their actual goal) by their own power. This can be difficult for them because A) They are usually unaware of how to dress properly B) They are usually severely out of shape for the task (and yes it is much harder than it looks) C) They usually don't have the right tools for the job. But what selfish ME cares about is how the effect my perfect double hitter day. First of all, I have never (not once) had a pre-season day where someone didn't completely destroy the skin track with there nuckle punching boot pack trail, that of course should be in exactly the same place as the skin track. This annoys me to no end, especially since A) Its early season so I have skinny skis and even skinnier, crappy skins that don't really climb that well anyway) B) the skin tracks usually heat up enough to get really hard and very slick. C) As you learn when you ski with somenone from outside the wasatch, our skin tracks are always ridiculously steep. So because of their laziness (or maybe its lake of excess available energy) they must destroy our way to the top so they can reduce their pain by 5%. So what do you do? Do you tell them, 'hey I'd appreciate it if you walked anywhere else other than the skin trac, because it makes it useless to us.' or do you just skin by smiling, or scouling while secretly heaping curses on them. I've tried both methods and am always met with limited success. Have you noticed that when people (at least some) are new, beginner, or inexperienced with a new activity they are also very defensive (for lack of a bigger vocabulary) about outsider input? I find this to me true most of the time in this scenario, and so I usually end up being the selfish jerk (Honesty this is really the truth, maybe that's why I dislike it so much) who cant just be nice as he goes by us in our pure agony. The scowl approach is definetly worse, especially if they are the ignorant, because they don't even know WHY your scowling at them! Then I am a jerk for sure! Anyway, I guess the real answer is learn to accept their deferent approaches to the same goal, and appreciate them as a human, living person who is just trying to enjoy the beautiful mountains (just like me). OR I should just keep the ski's put away until all the wire riders, and such are at the Bird, Brighton, or best of all the Canyons. Funny the same answer really applies here that applies in most places... are you ready? It's not about me. If I could just get that through my scull, I bet this all would be easy! Too bad.

I know you love to hear about the snow pack, (oh wait, no one really does-- thats what the avalanche forcast is for) so here goes. The small hand pits that I dug today revielled that up high (maybe 9000ft) you have some old snow from the ground up to what appears to be a temperature crust of about 2cm thick with a thin but very noticable layer of facets directly underneath and a very poor new snow bond on top (I would assume its because it was pretty cold at the arrival of the new snow (maybe in the 20's or colder) and so there was little or now bonding. So we have basically a cement floor, turned up to a given angle piled with new snow. The new snow originally showed 10 inches at collins (9700ft I think)but by the time we got to it, it had settled to some where around 4-8 inches. But in some locations there was an additional week layer in the new snow approx. half way down, creating a shear at about 4 inches down and then the big shear at 8 inches then 1/2 inch hard (maybe between 1 finger and pencil, but I didn't check)over a 2-5mm of facets, then semi consolidated snow below. While skinning with a patroller friend I mentioned that if it breaks below the temperature crust I was thinking it would be a hard slab, but in retrospect I think that was incorrect. Unless just the temperature crust slide at a wopping 1/2 inch crown... but I don't think that would be very life threatening. More likely the temperature crust would just create a great sliding surface. I didn't do any measurements, but about the level the skiing starts to get really fun it also started to get unstable, so would guess around 35% (I didn't read the forcast but I'd be willing to bet above this the threat level takes it up a notch)

So we skin accross a large path that has the potential to go 2000meters if all was right and I start to get nervous and so does my friend, so we skin to a low angle section to de-skin a ski out of the uncomfortable zone. No later do we start removing our stuff but we hear a yell from above, it was Dus hba ggins. We are directly below a snowboarder on a splitboard with 3 way collapsible poles (which means he has a considerable investment in back country skiing, so I would expect some good judgement also) Aware that we are in his line we work quickly to clean up and move on. But after a minute or two, he loses patience (or something) and decided he should start skiing, directly above us, on a steeper slope, in what I consider slightly concerning snow. Perfect. I have been unable at the moment to come up with a similar experience in other activities that would help show the actual danger associated with this situation, but I will try to explain. IF Dus hba ggins pulls out a slide of ANY size even very small with are immobilized on the slope without a means of moving with a huge (and I mean huge) section of snow below us that would most assuredly come along for the ride and most likely leave all three of us at the bottom barried in 30ft of snow, rocks, and trees. The good news is, I've got my beacon on, so my friend (who just happens to be the fastest guy with a beacon like 5 years running in annual beacon testing) I am confident could save me, would be barried right next to me. And Dus hba ggins barried just above us. This is what some would call an objective hazard... But I think of it a little bit like negligent man slaughter. I personally don't want to leave this world because someone kicked a slide off on me. (and I'm sure this has happened before)... So Dus hba ggins was had invested the $800 in a split board and at least another $100 on the poles and I'm sure some other stuff, or over $1000 in gear, responsibility should come along with it. You buy a car, run over someone while texting, are you going to be held responsible? Maybe if Albion basin was some unknown snowy hill on the side of a boring mountain in a small town filled with lots of big trucks, and not lots of Skiers, this wouldn't happen--and others wouldn't gamble with my life regarless if they where ignorant or just uncaring. So, the moral of the story is yes, It's hard living in the Wasatch, but if you don't ski pre-season or on weekends, you can eliminate a significant part of those 'objective' hazards!

I know that was just a big complain fest and I appologize, Just don't be Dus hba ggins when you are in that position? Yes they may have skinned right into your fresh tracks, and are taking forever to get out of the way, but is it worth risking their lives?


So, Dus hba ggins I forgive your attempt on my life and hope that others will forgive me when I do the same dumb thing and Today was a most excellent day in the Wasatch and tomorrow will be another fabulous day!

Run, Bike... Ski?

October 1st was the first snow day for the 09-10 season with a wopping 15inches reported a the Collin's snowtell. The question is really twofold at this point, the first is do you have rock ski's? If the answer is yes, than we've got more to talk about; but if its no, then really your decision has already made--your not going skiing. Really the answer should ALWAYS be yes in October as this is when the snow pack is WAY to thin, but some people are like kids in the candy store and feel they MUST ski on the first snow day of the year, regardless of the cost... When I arrived at Albion Basin this morning around 11:00 it was clear that I wasn't the only one with faulty decision making skills as I would guess maybe 20 others had already made tracks high on the mountain. But what those powder hounds should have been asking was when is there enough snow to ski? A friend once told me the '100 inch rule' that went something like if you don't have at least a 100 inch base, then you should be not skiing, or skiing conservatively, in areas where you know whats below, and probably not killing it on those huge drops and kickers that you usually hit (ya right). I tend to be a little more liberal on my decision making mostly because of a few good experience in an army of bad experiences. Last year, for example, on about Oct 15th ish we had 40inches in one storm and I must say the skiing was excellent, and I didn't leave one trace in my bases. This is not the norm, but the abnormal.
So what should we doing this time of year instead of skiing on rocks grass, and a little snow? I don't have any idea BUT I started running seriously again late summer of this year and have been enjoying my new access to the uncycle-able trails in the Wasatch. This has inevitably let to a marathon. So of course the one I wanted to do, the mid mountain in Park City, was full so I had to choose something else. After looking around and around I landed in the Adirondacks, NY. It turned out to be a very nice run with lots of hills, endless forests, and a beautiful lake. I finished, just about as I had planned at about 4:33. I felt good about it, but figured out its not really a very good time. Anyway, its a good thing I'm not a real runner.
If I was going to do some training for skiing that was fun, I think I'd either run or bike. Running is probably better for muscle training, and you can do it in just about any temperature, while cycling is more fun (to me anyway) and easier to burn calories, but very limited to sunny, warm, days. I've read that the only way to train for free healing is to run up hill, backwards. I won't be doing that anytime soon.

After driving up to the end of the pavement in the upper Alta parking lot to see how deep the snow really was and then again in the BC access lot above I got out of the car to feel the brisk air on my face. There is something special about the first breath of cold fresh mountain air that brings back the memories of endless powder turns in a beautiful, free Wasatch wilderness. I look up as far as I can see at Alta and see good turns, executed not by the beginner, but by one of the many, many excellent skiers from the city below. I guess that's why we are all here, because of this. For the first time, (ever actually) after seeing the snow, feeling the cold air on my face, I make the right decision--to get back in the car and drive home to wait for the 40 inch storm.

All Hair and No Air

So yesterday we recieve 20-24 inches of snow in 24 hrs or less. So that computes to around 1 inch per hour. Hopefully that sets off a red flag in your brain of a elevated danger. Yesterday mid day the Utah Avalanche Forcast Center raised the danger to Red or high. The danger here is the RATE of accumulation. Its not neccessarily the amount, but how quickly it came in. Anytime you hear the 1 inch per hour number you should start to pay attention. Remember that storm a few years back where we got 100 inches in 100 hrs? Ya, lots of bad things happened because of the RATE that the snow accumulated. Slabs don't mind getting new snow, but they need time to adjust to the new weight and to consolidate. As Bruce would say, a slab is like a rubber band if you stretch it our and touch it with a knife blade it will snap, (or add lots of snow to a snow pack quickly) but if you add it slow and give it time to adjust to the weight and consolidate properly its like touching the knife to the same rubber band when its not stretched--nothing happens. That being said we also had a storm beginning at high temps and slowly cooling. (Hopefully we learned from 'the perfect storm' that this is usually a good thing. That being said if you look at the temperature stations throughout the Wasatch you'll notice that if you get high enough (Flagstaff, Collins, etc.) the temperatures never got about about 28 degrees. This tells us that at that level, the new snow isn't going to consolidate as well to the old hard, suncrust as it did lower. Also check the winds over the storm cycle and you would also notice the the wind loaded mostly from the West moving from North West to South West of the high wind cycle then slowing to an insignificant level.

Just to step aside here for a moment to mention a pet peave (sp?) of mine. If you where writing a synopsis about Wind in some type of Forecast it might be a good idea to mention the direction of the wind as either FROM or TO. If you don't, or there is no preset standard, that is readily available to the ignorant public then its almost a useless planning tool because you've got a 50/50 chance of getting it right! My uneducated opinion would be to ALWAYS state it as a TO or FROM as to cause no confusion for those who are not in your loop.

So the most loading would be found on the East aspect (and I might add the best skiing). So to summarize if I was skiing I would try to stay on the higher, but not too high elevations in reasonable protected terrain at a reasonable angle at either below 35 degrees or significantly above 38 degrees using stability tests to check out your current slope. Its OK to ski cut soft slabs (new snow creates soft slabs, but are usually on top of hard slabs) but never ski cut a hard slab. Reason being a soft slab usually releases AT the trigger point (the skier) where as a hard slab usually releases ABOVE the trigger point. If you are ski cutting, make sure to plan your escape route, ski fast and don't fall! (back in my professional days we where ski cutting a steep 38 degree slope and deep new snow section and I turfed it in the middle of my ski cut. The I wolloed for a good 5 minutes to get right side up in the deep powder, not one of my safest moments and of course was followed by relentless heckling) Cornice kicking is a very effect was to test slope stability but the key is again, don't fall onto the slope by either breaking the cornice out from under you, or kicking it off and then losing your balance and falling headlong onto the slope. A refrigerator size cornice is perfect. Make sure you do this on an accurate representative slope, or the same one you are skiing. (Same aspect, angle, elevation, anchors) A note to remember Cornices ofter break much farther back than you expect so start really Conservative and work your way closer. Oh, and of course get a belay. The other option is to saw them off with a snow saw or a peace of cord. The cord being my personal choice. We did both a cord cut cornice and the stamp method today with good results. My favorite method for cornice removal is explosives, but unfortunately they don't just let anyone carry those around these days. So where did we decide to ski today? East aspect, 37 degree average angle with a steep point of 41 degrees. A perfect recipe for disaster right? Yes. Good thing we did multiple stability tests with cornices and ski cuts. This combined with Drew's forecast (http://utahavalanchecenter.org/advisory/slc) today gave us enough faith in the snow pack to give it a run. I would normally disclose our location but I've recently been getting some feedback that people may be skiing my secret stashes of good snow, so I won't be disclosing our location do to our NEED for huge amounts of powder to share with only the select few who we ski with. Not to mention its a long, long skin in with a dicey exit and for 4000ft of climbing you only get a good 1000ft vertical run (although I might add it is, well... Nirvana.)
So after a big climb, a lot of trail breaking we reached our own special powder park, if you will. After doing our stability tests we jumped in to ski (of course one at a time from safe zone to safe zone). And as has been my experience with this place, it was steep, and very deep. After the first few turns my face was freezing and I had to remove my sunglasses because they where covered in snow, I would have been gasping for breath except that I was skiing with my Avalung in. A skill I've found more and more useful. Most people describe this phenomena as 'face shots.' Well worth the hike. After completing or first run, we are all smiles and covered in snow.

After this the story has a short section of disappointment. After setting the return skin track to the top (not a small task) we show up at the top and a gang of 4 skiers had arrived at our secret stash. One in particular was the Wizard of the Wasatch. If you know this particular skier, he doesn't exactly have top notch people interactions skills. He greeted us with profanity and then quickly 'hucked' himself into our , tested, and designed personal powder stash that we had labored on not just to test but also to put in the skin track for. Unfortunately the Wizard has more Hair than Air, as one of his friends pointed out. After that his 3 friends jumped in to remove all available untracked sections left. Nice, work... If I recall I think the Wizard had a post about someone following his skin track up to Silver fork (or somewhere near there) and then stealing his line... We then decided to change to a north aspect and we skied a HUGE line into what I'll call A-basin after the ever overrated ski resort in Colorado. The snow wasn't as deep, and had a weird layer in the middle that made it feel like upside down snow, but it was still a good time with snow that was worth skiing. At the bottom of this line the signs where there to tell you we where sitting in a massive slide path. The tree's where flagged to like 40 feet up (all the branches had been removed except the down hill side) and the center or runout had only little short trees or no trees. (meaning that the slides have been removing them) I should have a good photo of this. We then skied out to a car we stashed at a different canyon. All in all, another stellar day in the Wasatch.

A marginal Wasatch experience.

Today was one of those fun informative days--not because of the skiing. If you've been out recently in the Wasatch, you probably already know that the South aspect, or anything close to that is corning up, or has already reached corn stage. The North aspect has settled out significantly to about 20-40cm. with reasonable skiing conditions. You can tell the Inversion is in (not just because you cant see across the valley, or the ice on your window)because the high elevation snow is showing signs of higher temperature bonding (really its just happening faster than normal). Good for the snow, not so good for the skiing.

If, like me, you decided to skin up a South Face early in the morning before it softened up (bad idea) you quickly became aware of the rock hard sun crust that has developed, and the sheet of ice that the skin tracks have become. Needless to say that was a very painful skin to the top of davenport. Next time, take off your ski's and boot pack. If its too hard to skin, then its perfect for booting.

Apparently people have forgotten how to properly ski corn. Its a timing thing: You ski it after the surface softens up, but not once the whole snow pack fills with water. Bruce would say if your booting and you sink up to your knee, then you need to be off the slope. I'd say if it feels like your skiing in 12 inches of mash potatoes your too late. The idea is to not ruin the surface for future skiers, but to preserve it for many good corn days to come. To review. You just want the surface to soften slightly enough for good turns but not so much that your skiing deep potatoes. Another clue that its too late is if you keep hooking up in the back end and losing control. Easy fix? Change aspects slightly to one that hasn't had as much direct sun yet. You can micro-manage your corn depth by this one trick, not to mention you wont leave huge ice jumps for the next guy to brake his knees on.

Instead of skiing today, I really spent most of my time doing a full blown snow profile. Mostly because I was so annoyed by the skin up I didn't really want to ski much! Anyway, here it is. Actually, its a pretty good snow pack compared to what we started with. If we where in Colorado we would have been done on the the North aspects until spring, luckily we ain't in Colorado.

A few notes to mention on the profile:
1. Facets near the ground is normal in most snow packs because the ground heats up the snow from below creating a temperature gradient between over a short distance near the ground. Because of the depth of pack (180cm) its unlikely that it would fail at the surface (although if it did it would be one big mother of a slab, not likely survivable) When we move into spring conditions this will be something we want to watch. Watch for trigger points like rocks, trees, things with a shallow pack that are surrounded by facets, or old, big slide paths that have much shallower snow packs. Below you can see the facets from the ground are actually rounding out pretty well, and are somewhat bonded.

2. The Rain crust is the coolest! But its not really a fear at this point because of how the new snow bonded to it on the following storm; of more interest would be the facets under the rain crust, but again they are pretty deep and its unlikely for a slab to fail that deep. Below is a bad photo of the rain crust.
3. Between 100-115cm there is a interesting hard layer of snow that my feeble brain can't seem to remember, but I would guess its from the extended warm section in January. It also had a harder layer at the top that I was unable to isolate, needless to say I'm pretty sure it was the temperature crust from January.

4. Finally, there is some serious surface hoar (I'm told anyway) in certain places. I didn't see any today, but that because of where I skied. I would be suspicious of it anywhere you have a good clear view of the sky in a cold place (the bottom of drainage's) or places that receive only light wind.

Ski recommendations? Go rock climbing, in the desert, maybe it will snow again before spring.

Just another day in the Wasatch

So its Sunday night, Arizona just lost the Superbowl, and I really don't care. In fact my eyes hurt from looking at a TV screen for soooo long. The good news it was good friends, and good food! I've had a killer week (so it seems) after 3 days of skiing, 1 day of ice climbing and stand ups. Our perfect 36 inch storm snow pack is quickly turning to old snow and soon will move to corn if the forecast is right.

My last day of the week we spent our time in Lambs canyon doing a leisurely tour. The picture on the right is our view of Alexander basin. The peak on the left is Wilson where we skied on my last blog. As you can see, many lines exist that we didn't ski that day. We had a day of crazy winds but thankfully we where able to ski on the more protected North Aspect where the snow was still intact. On the skin up we chose the South face and for the first time of the year I had to pull out the glob-stopper to keep the snow from building up on my skis--way too early in the year (interestingly enough neither of my ski partners seemed to experience this but me, must be technique). We skied two drainage's that skied pretty well, or I guess they where 'worth skiing.'




A freeze thaw crust has developed that is very altitude dependent, so the higher you go, the better it gets, although it's a double edged sword because the higher you get, the more wind damage and loading accrued from the previous day. So to find the perfect snow you would want to be on a high, yet protected face that hasn't had too much wind loading. Paying special attention to aspect, slope angle, and above all, wind loading. The South aspects have now all but been hammered by the sun and in a few days should be good corn, but until then it would be good to stay off them as it will probably be a breakable death crust or wet slab zone. I would check out the the temperature profiles over the last week to get a good idea what is happening before choosing a location. Check them out at: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/current/meso.slv.php like I said before, knowing the micro weather data history to where you are going is paramount for not only safe decision making, but also for choosing the best pow. Needless to say we had a good day in Lambs, not just the snow but the company, and of course the high quality beverages.


Saturday I had the opportunity to wake up at 430am drive for 3 hours (yes that's an extra 30 minutes for driving past the turn) for some stellar somewhat unique Utah ice. The most beautiful ice I've ever seen is at this location. Imagine thick, blue ice flowing out of a orange sandstone drainage surrounded by a thin layer of old snow and desert foliage. Then think of a clear blue Utah sky with temps somewhere around 35 degrees with perfect, hero ice. With 4 of use we made good work of the ice and started something new (at least for us). For lack of better terms I'm going to call it Ice bouldering. Or climbing close to the ground, on Ice and Rock. One of the flows where where climbing on had a cave behind it with one wall steep sandstone and the other a large overhanging wall of ice. The room was glowing blue as the light filtered through 2 feet of ice to the cave to make a very beautiful location. Its one of those experiences that help you remember why you like to ice climb. We spend some time working on a few mixed routes that either went from rock to ice, or ice to rock.


Unfortunately none of the 4 of us brought a camera so I don't have any cool photos. After a season of ice climbing with the likes of Jared (A LCC hardman) my ice climbing seems to have improved dramatically (or it could just be my confidence). But today my arms, abs and calves are telling me I'm not as strong as I think. Regardless it was a great time, and I can't wait tell we get back! Speaking of the desert I'm thinking of a trip this week, anyone interested?