Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - New Years Eve 2009

Climbers All Over:

--This isn't news to anybody anywhere. But there will be a lot of drunk climbers holed up in hotels in icy places like Ouray and Lee Vining and Banff and Cody and North Conway tonight. And there will be a lot of drunk climbers huddled around campfires in places like Red Rocks and Joshua Tree. And tomorrow there will be a lot of smart climbers who forewent the partying up early and sending hard!

Notes from All Over:

--A series of avalanches in the Italian Alps has killed seven people, emergency services said. Four of those who died were rescuers searching for two tourists killed by an earlier avalanche in the Trentino region of northern Italy. Another avalanche killed a 12-year-old German boy skiing in the same area. The head of Italy's civil protection service, Guido Bertolaso, said rescuers were dying because people were ignoring warnings about conditions. To read more, click here.

--The Teton Ice Park opened last week. This new climbing area has been modeled off the Ouray Ice Park and looks like it will become just as popular. To read more, click here.

--A post on Supertopo.com explores the five stages of grief and how they relate to backing off a climb. To read the post, click here.

--Simon Gietl and Roger Schali climbed a new route on the east face of Patagonia's Poincenot (9,849'). The team sent the route alpine style in four days. To read more, click here.

--On December 10th, world-renowned ice climber, Guy Lacelle died when he was swept off of an ice climb in Hyalite Canyon by an avalanche. Doug Chabot of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center investigated the incident and created the following video about the causes of the accident:

Conditions Report - December 30, 2009

RED ROCK CANYON:

Archived Photo. Scott Massey.

--Forecast and average temperatures for Red Rock Canyon.

--Webcam for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

--The late exit and overnight permit number for Red Rock Canyon is 702-515-5050. If there is any chance that you will be inside the park after closing, be sure to call this number so that you don't get a ticket.

--The entrance to the scenic drive had a parking area for those who wanted to carpool up until approximately April of 2009. That lot has now become employee parking and people who want to carpool are required to park at the lot outside the Scenic Drive exit.

--The scenic drive currently opens its gates at 6 in the morning.

--There are plans to change the fee structure for camping and climbing in Red Rock Canyon. To learn more about the proposed changes and to find out how you can help keep the fees as they currently are, please click here.

-- Red Rocks guide Scott Massey reports that on 12/28 was fairly cloudy and cold. He also reports that the other week there was snow plastered on all the north faces - "absolutely amazing!".

JOSHUA TREE:

--Forecast and average temperatures for Joshua Tree National Park.

--Webcam for Joshua Tree National Park.

NORTHWEST:

--Forecast for the West Slope of the Cascades.

--Forecast for the East Slope of the Cascades.

--Webcam for Leavenworth and the Stuart Range.

--Sno-Park permits are available for purchase in Washington State. To purchase a permit and/or read more about them click here.

--Forecast for Mount Rainier.

--Forest Service Road Report for Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

--Mount Saint Helens, Mount Adams conditions and recreation report.

--Webcams for Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Leavenworth, and Highway 2.

--An up-to-date ski and snow report for the Northwest may be found here.

--Up-to-date Pacific Northwest ice conditions may be found here.

-- This party took advantage of the awesome weekend weather and climbed Eldorado.

Photo Credit Stephen Bobick.

-- Chair Peak was popular this last weekend -- bluebird conditions all around. This party and another reported great skiing during the holidays. A detailed conditions report of the Mt. Snoqualmie area can be found here.

SIERRA:

--For an update on road conditions in the Eastern Sierra region. Follow this link to read more.

--For up-to-date avalanche and weather reports in the Eastern Sierra, click here.

--Webcams for Bishop, June Lake, Mammoth Mountain, Mono Lake, Tioga Pass, and Yosemite National Park.

ALPS:

--Chamonix and Mont Blanc Regional Forecasts may be found here.

--Webcams for Chamonix Valley, Zermatt and the Matterhorn.

ALASKA RANGE:

--The American Alpine Institute is now accepting applications for the 2010 climbing season. Please call our office at 360-671-1505 for more information.

--Forecast for Denali.

Hueco

I'm down in Hueco right now and taking a rest day while the 2 inches of snow that fell last night melts. Yesterday I took a tour out with some of the kids from the ABC group at the Boulder Rock Club. It was inspiring to climb with those kids. They are so positive, super strong and confident, and have tons of fun. The highlight was watching Sean Rabatou climb a problem called Mangum -- V9 at age 11 and height probably just over 4 ft is super impressive.

Since I've been down here, I've been mostly just going on tours in the backcountry. My main goal is to find some new lines that are really cool. On other trips, especially last year, I was more focused on repeating established lines. This year, I'm psyched for new things. It's lots of fun to explore here. I found one line that I'm especially psyched on and have tried a bit. It's a 25ft arete with a slab that behind it at just the right distance so you can step off onto it but it doesn't get in your way when climbing. I've figured out all but one move on the problem and it has some crazy beta. I think it'll be a classic if it goes down. Here's one picture that doesn't really do it justice. If it goes, I'll probably try to get some better photos and perhaps some video.

Choosing a Solo Tent

Perhaps the most common question that our first year guides ask is, "what kind of tent do you recommend?" I actually remember asking that very same question myself as I started my guide career and I subsequently made a big mistake.

The first tent that I bought for guiding was a Mountain Hardwear Trango 2 which is a great tent. The thing is utterly bomb-proof, but clocks in at nearly ten pounds. Even when one splits such a tent with his partner, it is still a tremendously heavy piece of equipment. Unfortunately, as a guide you spend so much time in the field that you are often need to have your own tent for a little private time. During the summer season a guide's tent becomes a guide's home - a home that one carries by himself weighing almost ten pounds is an incredibly heavy abode.

Mountain Hardwear Trango 2

Every now and then I was lucky enough that our shop manager would let me borrow one of the one-man tents that we rent. I often borrowed the four season one man MSR Fury. This extremely heavy-duty tent is no longer made as a solo tent. It now only comes in a two-person version. This is a good thing, because the door in the vestibule on the one-man version was nearly impossible to get in and out of. One had to contort his body in multiple strange ways in order to get in or out of the tent.

MSR Fury

Many guides chose to go with small two-man single-wall tents like the Black Diamond/Bibbler Ahwahnee or the Black Diamond Firstlight. Others are big fans of the solo double-wall Hilleberg Akto. I personally hate single-wall tents in the Cascades. They often leak after a few years of use. And the Hilleberg tents have a somewhat confusing system wherein the tent and the fly are permanently attached to one another. This system often requires additional time to figure out when you set it up.

Personal prejudices toward the preceding tents aside, many of our guides have found these options to work exceedingly well. And it is important to understand that each individual has different needs and desires. Considering that, many of the options previously listed might work very well for you...

Eventually I decided that it was time to purchase a one-man tent of my own. I ended up with a very light option, but again something that wasn't terribly functional. I purchased a Mountain Hardwear Halcyon one-man tent.

Mountain Hardware Halcyon

There were three problems with the Halcyon. First, the entire inside of the tent was made of mesh. This kept the inside of the tent cold and allowed muddy water to splash in from below the rainfly. Second, I wasn't able to sit-up inside the tent. It was too short. And third, the tent was not free-standing, which is a huge pain in the rear. Each of these problems were enough to make the tent worthless on their own, but together they made the tent less than worthless, they made the tent pure garbage. As such, I got rid of it and invested in a much cheaper but more functional one man tent.

Approximately two years ago I bought a double-wall REI Chrysalis UL tent. This was a much warmer one man tent that allowed plenty of room for me to sit up inside. There wasn't very much mesh on the tent at all and it was completely freestanding. After all of my experimentation this was by far the best one-man tent that I encountered.

REI Chrysalis UL Tent without the fly

The problem with this tent of course, is that they no longer make it. And indeed, they have not replaced it with anything similar. Unfortunately, it looks like when my tent wears out I'll have to start a new quest for another one-man tent that works.

--Jason D. Martin

The Murder of the Impossible

In 1971, Reinhold Messner was already a well-known alpinist. So when he wrote an essay that became one of the most heavily quoted and debated pieces of writing in climbing's history, people paid attention. In 1971, Messner wrote, The Murder of the Impossible.

Reinhold Messner

Messner became one of the most well-known alpinists in the world after he became the first person to summit Mount Everest without Oxygen in 1978 and then the first person climb all 14 8000 meter peaks in 1986. These accomplishments culminated to make him an important voice in the world of climbing. It also served to keep his essay alive and under constant scruitny.

Following are a series of select incendiary quotes from the essay. Some of the most quoted parts have been highlighted:

Expansion bolts are taken for granted nowadays; they are kept to hand just in case some difficulty cannot be overcome by ordinary methods. Today's climber doesn't want to cut himself off from the possibility of retreat: he carries his courage in his rucksack, in the form of bolts and equipment. Rock faces are no longer overcome by climbing skill, but are humbled, pitch by pitch, by methodical manual labor; what isn't done today will be done tomorrow. Free-climbing routes are dangerous, so the are protected by pegs. Ambitions are no longer built on skill, but on equipment and the length of time available. The decisive factor isn't courage, but technique; an ascent may take days and days, and the pegs and bolts counted in the hundreds. Retreat has become dishonorable, because everyone knows now that a combination of bolts and singlemindedness will get you up anything, even the most repulsive-looking direttissima.

Times change, and with them concepts and values. Faith in equipment has replaced faith in oneself; a team is admired for the number of bivouacs it makes, while the courage of those who still climb "free" is derided as a manifestation of lack of conscientiousness.

Who has polluted the pure spring of mountaineering?

"Impossible": it doesn't exist anymore. The dragon is dead, poisoned, and the hero Siegfried is unemployed. Not anyone can work on a rock face, using tools to bend it to his own idea of possibility.

Anyone who doesn't play ball is laughed at for daring take a stand against current opinion. The plumbline generation has already consolidated itself and has thoughtlessly killed the ideal of the impossible. Anyone who doesn't oppose this makes himself an accomplice of the murderers.

I'm worried about that dead dragon: we should do something before the impossible is finally interred. We have hurled ourselves, in a fury of pegs and bolts, on increasingly savage rock faces: the next generation will have to know how to free itself from all these unnecessary trappings. We have learned from the plumbline routes; our successors will once again have to reach the summits by other routes. It's time we repaid our debts and searched again for the limits of possibility - for we must have such limits if we are going to use the virtue of courage to approach them. And we must reach them. Where else will be able to find refuge in our flight from the oppression of everyday humdrum routine? In the Himalaya? In the Andes? Yes certainly if we can get there; but for most of us there'll only be these old Alps.

So let's save the dragon; and in the future let's follow the road that past climbers marked out. I'm convinced it's still the right one.

Put on your boots and get going. If you've got a companion, take a rope with you and a couple of pitons for your belays, but nothing else. I'm already on my way, ready for anything - even for retreat, if I meet the impossible. I'm not going to be killing any dragons, but if anyone wants to come with me, we'll go to the top together on the routes we can do without branding ourselves murderers.

So thirty-eight years later, we have to ask whether or not the impossible has been murdered? Has the advent and popularity of sport climbing changed the way that we think of climbing? How about aid climbing? What about mixed climbing? We've seen ascent after ascent over the last few years that required such a high level of commitment and technical ability, that it's hard to say that the impossible has been murdered.

On the other hand, imagine a route up a blank rock face where every four feet there is a bolt. Anybody could climb such a route using aid techniques. This would definitely fit into Messner's description of the murder of the impossible. But now imagine that same route with a bolt every seven feet. There might be climbers out there who could climb such a route and then again there might not...

Most climbers don't think about whether or not they are murdering the impossible with their techniques. Most are just out there to have a good time and maybe do something cool.

The reality is that the introduction of 5.15 into the grade system and wild expeditions to the edges of the Earth continue to show us that every generation of climbers has a new "impossible" to overcome. As long as we continue to follow the ethics of a given area or range, meeting the impossible on its own terms will always be possible...

--Jason D. Martin

December and January Climbing Events

--December 28 -- Kelowna, BC -- Banff Film Festival

--December 31-January 3 -- Joshua Tree, CA -- Joshua Tree Climbers Carnival

--January 1-2 -- El Portraro Chico, Mexico -- Climbing Festival

--January 7 -- Fernie, BC -- Banff Film Festival

--January 7-9 -- Kirov, Russia -- UIAA World Cup Ice Climbing

--January 7-10 -- Ouray, CO -- Ouray Ice Festival

--January 8 -- Carbondale, CO -- ABS Competition

--January 9 -- Cranbrook, BC -- Banff Film Festival

--January 10 -- Invermere, BC -- Banff Film Festival

--January 14-17 -- Crested Butte, CO -- High Adventure: Ice and Ski

--January 16 -- Bloomington, IL -- 15th Annual Hangdog Jamboree

--January 16-17 -- Saas Grund, Switzerland -- UIAA European Ice Climbing Youth Championship

--January 16-17 -- Val Daone, Italy -- UIAA World Cup Ice Climbing

--Janyary 22-23 -- Saas Fee, Switzerland -- UIAA World Cup Ice Climbing

--January 23 -- San Luis Obispo, CA -- Bishop Peak Adopt-a-Crag

--January 23 -- Superior, WI -- Rock On

--January 26 -- Walla Walla, WA -- Banff Film Festival

--January 29 -- Jeffersonville, VT -- Smuggs Ice Bash

--January 30 -- Boston, MA -- Heart of Steel Bouldering Comp

Weekend Warrior -- Videos to get you stoked!

Happy Holidays Weekend Warriors!

I hope that all of you are enjoying the holiday season thus far. For as long as I can remember I've always wondered what Santa did after he was done making his rounds and now, after years of searching, I've finally found the answer. He hits the slopes!

Watch Santa shred the slopes as he makes a stop in Colorado on his way back up to the North Pole. I've gotta say, despite his initial wipeout, Santa has some serious skills for an overweight old guy.

Apparently when Santa isn't cruisin' the pow in Colorado he stylin' in the terrain park at Heavenly. Is there anything this guy can't do? I mean, besides lay off the cookies and milk.

Reality TV and Mountain Guiding

Merry Christmas!

Let's see what Santa brought and put under the tree. Oh this is interesting... Look at this, it's everybody's favorite blog from a year and a half ago. You know, the one where I posted as many funny pictures of our guides as possible. Yeah, that's the one...

And not only that, a year has gone by, and I've spent that year looking for embarrassing pictures of guides to add to my initial post. So here is the new and improved, "Reality TV and Mountain Guiding."
______________________________________________

Last Thursday it came in an email.

I received a call this morning from an attorney friend in Seattle who is setting up interviews for guides who are interested in being part of a TV reality show on guides and guiding. The company developing this concept has previously done a variety of TV reality shows including Survivor, The Bachelor, and now new work themed programs like Ice Road Truckers.

A separate production company working with them is financing this and is currently funding:

--auditions for a series focused on guides
--the creation of a pilot

Woah! What's this? A TV show about mountain guides. Can you imagine how much fun people would make of the guides involved? Can you imagine how much goading and ribbing they would take from their peers?

Could this man be a reality TV star? (Dylan Taylor)

It's hard enough to tell people that you're a mountain guide with a straight face. It would be utterly impossible to tell people that you were both a mountain guide and a reality TV star without sounding like a complete doofus.

So after making fun of this all day, Dylan Taylor and I talked each other into going. AAI Guides Richard Riquelme, Alasdair Turner and Dawn Glanc also participated.

The audition went well for everyone. Indeed, it sounds like if this thing gets off the ground we could all be on television. That would be both cool and incredibly embarrassing. Reality stars look like models. Mountain guides look like pieces of leather.

Anyway since we're all going to be stars of reality TV, I've started to work out my plan. I've already made alliances with everyone. Dylan and I are totally going to vote Richard off the mountain and Richard and I are totally going to vote Dylan off the mountain. Dawn's still neutral. And Alasdair doesn't like alliances. But that's okay, I'll flip both of them over to my side... It's going to be awesome!

Or maybe it will just be ludicrous. I don't think there will be any voting, but who knows...? It is reality television.

Here's a little taste of reality vs. reality. In other words, Reality TV, vs the reality of being a mountain guide. I've placed a few pictures of reality TV stars above pictures of our guides. You can decide which reality is more interesting...

The Bachelor

The Real Bachelor (Forest McBrain)

Hell's Kitchen

And the kitchen after hell froze over. (Coley Gentzel)

Bridezillas

And Guidezillas (Richard Riquelme)

Dancing with the Stars

And Not Dancing with the Stars. (Alistair Turner)

The Girls Next Door

And The Guides Next Door (Viren Perumal)

Temptation Island

And No Temptation Tent (Kurt Hicks)

America's Next Top Model

And America's Current Top Model. (Mike Powers)

--Jason D. Martin
_____________________________________________________

Afterword - There never was a reality TV show. Too bad. It would have been really really really really fun to shock America...

--J.M.

Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 12/24/09

Northwest:

A Swift Water Rescue was Engaged Saturday when
Two Climbers Flipped their Raft trying to get to Drury Falls in Leavenworth
Photo Courtesy of the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office

-- Two Seattle-area ice climbers are safe and dry after their raft capsized early Saturday in the icy Wenatchee River on the approach to Drury Falls, forcing a swift-water rescue operation. The incident happened before 7 a.m. in Tumwater Canyon, about 2 miles west of The Alps candy store on Highway 2, Sgt. Andy Zimmerman, Chelan County Sheriff’s spokesman, said Sunday. The climbers were Alex Krawarik, 38, of Bellevue and Rafael Haroutunian, 47, of Seattle. Alex is well known in the climbing community. He co-authored, Washington Ice: A Climbing Guide with AAI Guide Jason Martin. To read more, click here and here.

--The American Alpine Institute's International Mountain Day celebration was a success. All proceeds went to the fund to help purchase Index to make it a permanent climber's park. Through a combination of raffle items and pay-what-you can rock rescue clinics, AAI was able to make a nice dent in the funds required to purchase the crag!

Blake Herrington
Photo from Outdoor Research

--Bellingham's Blake Herrington established seven new alpine lines in the Cascades over the summer and people started to take notice of the 21 year-old. Climbing did a feature article on him. Check it out here.

-- When a rescue team came on Luke Gullberg's body at the top of a Mount Hood glacier and tried to figure out what had become of his climbing partners, they looked up at a forbidding rise of ice and snow. They saw no sign of Katie Nolan and Anthony Vietti on the 1,500-foot Reid headwall, no gear in bright color standing out from the monochrome, no trail. And they heard no radio signal. Had Nolan and Vietti rented a $5 locator beacon and had they been able to activate it after whatever misfortune ended their climb on Dec. 12, the searchers below might have been able to pinpoint their location. The two are presumed buried beneath several feet of snow and ice. It's the second time in three years that a search and rescue operation on the 11,239-foot mountain has failed to turn up climbers who went up the mountain without signaling devices and got into deadly trouble. To read more, click here.

--In related news, the Oregonian newspaper stepped WAY over the line this week with an anti-climber/anti-SAR cartoon. To see it, click here.

Sierra:

--The Sierra Nevada ski industry appears poised to bounce back from last year, one of its worst, to this season, which could be the best in years. "Because of the early snow, everyone I've talked to has never been more optimistic about this season," said Rob Brown, president and publisher of Orinda-based Mountain News Corp., which publishes Onthesnow.com and provides snow reports for media outlets. "I really believe it's going to be one of the best we've seen in a long time. "There's a lot of pent-up demand since last year was so bad," Brown added. To read more, click here.

June Mountain Ski Resort in the Eastern Sierra

--On Saturday, June Mountain Ski resort finally opened. To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced legislation on Monday to preserve the spectacular heritage of the California desert by creating two new National Monuments and expanding Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve. The bill would establish new wilderness areas in Death Valley National Park and on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service. Finally, the legislation would also establish a permitting process for all renewable energy projects on BLM land. To read more, click here.

--Two men have pleaded guilty to trying to steal 600 pounds of wildflower seed pods in Utah's Zion National Park in hopes of a payday on the commercial market. Forty-four-year-old Cresencio Martinez-Guzman and 23-year-old Cresencio Lucena-Alvarez pleaded guilty to felony theft of government property and were sentenced to probation Dec. 7. They also admitted being in the U.S. illegally and agreed not to fight deportation. To read more, click here.

Himalaya:

--Joe "Touching the Void" Simson has soloed a new route on the popular Himalayan trekking peak, Mera Peak. To read more, click here.

--Fumitaka Ichimura and Genki Narumi, two of the now well-known Giri-Giri Boys from Japan, recently made the first ascent of the north face of Tawoche (21,328') in Nepal. The pair made the their alpine style ascent November 26-28. To read more, click here.

--High altitude climbing blogger, Alan Arnette has written a fascinating blog on Everest death statistics. To read the blog, click here.

--The government of Pakistan has announced that its bargain rates on mountaineering fees will be maintained for the 2010 climbing season. Under the discount plan, which has been in place for the past several years in an effort to lure climbers to the troubled country, there is no fee for peaks up to 6,500 meters and a sliding scale for higher peaks, topping out at $6,000 for a team of seven on K2. To read more and to see the fee structure, click here.

--Nepal’s Cabinet sat down earlier this week in an unconventional office- they called their meeting to order in the shadow of the world’s highest mountain- Everest. Arriving by helicopter, the cabinet members wore oxygen masks for the thin air and heavy winter clothing for the below-freezing temperatures. They met near the Mount Everest base camp Kalapathar, at 5,242 meters (17,200 feet) above sea level, which can be seen as a symbolic gesture of how far we have to go and how much must still be done to deal with climate change. In the mainstream version of the Monkeywrench Gang and Greenpeace spirit, national governments have been utilizing public relations-friendly, high profile meetings to emphasize to the world the importance of the Copenhagen Summit. To read more, click here.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

--On the Tibetan Plateau, temperatures are rising and glaciers are melting faster than climate scientists would expect based on global warming alone. A recent study of ice cores from five Tibetan glaciers by NASA and Chinese scientists confirmed the likely culprit: rapid increases in black soot concentrations since the 1990s, mostly from air pollution sources over Asia, especially the Indian subcontinent. Soot-darkened snow and glaciers absorb sunlight, which hastens melting, adding to the impact of global warming. To read more, click here.

Notes from All Over:

--There was a fair bit of controversy over this article about an avalanche this week. The newspaper called the victim experienced an knowledgeable, but he didn't carry a beacon, a probe or a shovel. Read a backcountry ski blog about this here.

The Kelman Hut is a National Park Hut, perched high above Tasman Saddle
at 8,038 feet in the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park

--Two Australian climbers were lucky to survive a 200-metre fall in the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park last week. The men, both described as experienced climbers in their 20s, fell after one of them lost his footing as they climbed the track to Kelman Hut, near Mt Annan. They were tied to each other and Department of Conservation area manager Richard McNamara told the Timaru Herald there was little they could have done to prevent the fall. He said when one of them slipped on a ledge, they both fell. To read more, click here.

--The Sauk County Sheriff's Department in Wisconsin says at least three people have serious injuries and at least nine more have minor injuries after a serious ski lift accident Thursday night at Devil's Head Resort in Merrimac. Victims were transported to area hospitals. After 10 o'clock, the chief deputy reported rescuers had finished evacuating the ski lift. Authorities say around 7 P.M. a ski lift loaded with people suddenly stopped and started falling backwards, and operators couldn't get it to stop.

--In related news, a 4-year-old girl was flown to the hospital in serious condition after falling from a ski chairlift Saturday at Alta Ski Area. The girl was riding the Sunnyside chairlift about 4:30 p.m. when she apparently fell 30 to 40 feet, said Unified Fire Authority Capt. Clint Smith. To read more, click here.

--New Hampshire conservation officers say a Nashua hiker who spent the night in the woods after conditions delayed his progress was prepared to handle the tough conditions. Forty-five-year-old Kevin McDonald headed out Saturday for a nine-mile trek in Livermore near the Kancamagus Highway between Lincoln and Conway. To read more, click here.

--The UIAA has published its Mountain Ethics Declaration on December 11 to mark International Mountain Day. The Declaration spells out ethics of sportsmanship, respect for cultures and care for the environment, and it was approved at the UIAA General Assembly on October 10. To read more, click here.

Paradise to Muir - 2010

December 29th, 2009

I just did a nice check on Camp Muir this morning.  I left Paradise at about 9:00 a.m.  It was a little chilly.  I was really surprised how few skiers were actually out.  Kudos to the brave soul who marched up the Nisqually and skied the chute solo.  Style.

First things first.  Attention everyone.  There was a wicked layer of surface hoar that didn't get any sun action today before the clouds started rolling in.  It's going to get buried.  There are all sorts of facets in the snow in the top 20 cm.  What's worrisome is that the surface hoar is growing on a layer of sun crust.  Underneath the sun crust is another layer of facets.  Check out the snowpit profile.

Click on the image for a better, more readable size.

Expect these faceted layers to remain intact on all aspects for a while.

So the rest of the trip to Muir was outstanding.  Skiing was 7 out of 10, for the windswept snowfield, anyway.  The new snow that is forecast should make the skiing even better.

One thing I want everyone to be aware of is what we call the "Ant Trap".  Remember that sand pit that Luke got thrown into by Jabba?  Well, this is kind of like that.

It's located right next to McClure Rock.  Click that picture to the right and note the coordinates on the bottom of the photo: -121.724123   46.808050 (WGS84).  Plug that into your GPS and avoid it like the plague.

Many people have been eaten by the Ant Trap and more than a few have broken bones because of it.

Things are looking good at Camp Muir, albeit there is a lot of snow.  Remember you'll have to dig your way into the upper half of the middle toilet.  So plan on a little shoveling before you are moved to use it!

Also, remember if you're coming up to climb, to stop at the Paradise Old Station (the A-frame in the upper parking lot) and self-register.  You can also pay the 30 dollar climbing fee to the 'iron ranger' there as well.

A storm was quickly moving in, so I had to ski-dattle.  Down at Paradise, the parking lot is completely full!  Hundreds of cars and sledders.

December 23rd, 2009 - Sweet Turns at Paradise!

This is it. Finally our snowpack at Paradise is back to normal at 78 inches. The rain from the last warm spell has stopped and we have up to 18 inches of new snow that has consolidated and another 5 inches of pretty light snow on top of it.

I started up the road this morning after we opened it at around 08:00 am.  The light on the mountain was absolutely spectacular.  It was clear and there was a little bit of surface hoar when I went to the weather station this morning.  Here was the weather obs:

High: 22  Low: 16  Current: 22  Precip: .02  New: Tr Total Snow: 78" Winds: N @ 3-4.

We had our morning chores to do, cones in the parking lot, bumping sign and bamboo in the snowplay area, then folks started coming in droves.
The snowplay area is open and the runs are fast.  However, because there's relatively little snow, we can only put one run in.  The lines are a little long.  Remember to get out of the run when you've come to a stop!

About noon we headed up towards Pan Point.  What's this?  It's noon at Paradise on a sunny day and there's no tracks?  Where are all the skiers?  Gary Voigt was up making turns in upper Edith Creek below McClure.

We've been telling people for years that the right way up Pan Point is in the trees on the nose.  However, sometimes I think you're better off just going up the gully.  We should've.  The south facing part of the nose of the ridge was a little wet and heavy.  It was starting to crack as we got onto steeper ground >40 degrees.

Always evaluate your own avalanche conditions!


We crested the ridge and decided to head for the top of Pan Point at around 7200 feet.

I was still surprised to see no tracks up above us since we had such a late start and the Paradise parking lot was FULL.

Whatever, the more powder for us.

Well, the way down was fabulous.  My favorite run is to cut underneath McClure Rock.  It's a little less exposed to the cliff bands around Pan Point.  I rarely find avalanche conditions out this far.  However, I did notice a crown feature on those cliff bands back down towards Pan Point.  East facing, steep, ridge top... no surprise.

However, out where we were, the snow was outstanding.

Once we hit the flats to the east of Pan point, we traversed down the top of Mazama Ridge until we got to a slope locally known as Bundy's Blunder.  It's just upridge of Sluiskin Falls.  There was some slide deposition on it from the sun action today.  It was only 4-5", but wet and heavy.  It was enough to carry us, so we traversed out a hundred yards to the right and merrily made sweet turns all the way to the Paradise Valley Road.

Here's the latest weather history comparison:

Date 12/23

Max Recorded Snowdepth at Paradise 166 inches

Year of Max Recorded Snowdepth at Paradise 1916

Historic Average Snowpack at Paradise 77.9 inches

Current Snowdepth at Paradise 78 inches

Percent of Normal 100.13%

Percent of Historic Max 46.99%

Average Hi Temp: 32

Today's Hi Temp 22

Average Lo Temp: 21

Today's Lo Temp 16

Come on up!  It's good!