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| Greg and Collin tour across the north slope of Chair Peak |
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| Kevin |
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| Greg |
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| Collin |
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| Greg |
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| Kevin |
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| Collin |
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| Collin |
March 23, North Slope of Chair Peak
Possibly the best conditions I have ever had on what is normally a stellar run. 1900 vertical feet from Chair's NW ridge down to Snow Lake. Whew, it was nice. Hooked up with Greg Louie and Collin Darrah to chase after Crispin and Silas, who had an hour lead on us. Never caught them, but sure appreciated the skin track.
March 17-18, Poker Run - Vantage, Wa.
Hooked up with my almost neighbor Scott and his buddy Jason for a little break from the snow. Two days of riding along the Columbia river near Vantage. Weather was perfect and it was nice to work some different muscles. Event was a poker ride put on by Fringe mc club and the NWMA. Scott managed to get the winning poker hand. Jason took home a trophy for second place in the endurocross event.
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| Jason |
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| Kevin |
March 8, West shoulder of Red Mt.
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| Greg with Mt. Rainier in the distance |
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| Kevin with the north facing chute right behind |
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| Nice turns - West shoulder of Red Mt. |
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| Greg kicks off some pinwheels |
Greg and I headed out to try and circumnavigate Red Mt. I think I have been up to the chute, off the north side of the west shoulder of Red Mt. three times now, and have yet to pull the trigger and drop off into the unknown. Today was a beautiful bluebird day with rapidly warming temperatures. With the fresh snow lingering from Tuesday and the hot weather we were both pretty tired by the time we reached the West shoulder of Red. Gazing at the chute off the backside, we could see the chute looked skiable, but certainly did not look pretty. It seems to take the brunt of any North winds, not to mention the ice glazed rocks above the sides of the chute. It didn't take much imagination to envision a hard layer of ice under a thin layer of wind buffed snow. I think we were both happy to not push it, and just ski the West shoulder of Red. Turns were okay off the top, but turned extremely sticky by the time we hit the floor of Commonwealth Valley. We did ski cut a few slopes and enjoyed firm turns on a nice smooth base. It's always interesting to set off a few wet snow slides and see how much momentum they pick up. We were definitely concerned with avalanche condtions today, and expected that we would need to slide off some of the new snow on our way down, before being able to safely ski.
Unfortunately, this evening I heard that another fellow backcountry skier had met his maker. Steve Romeo, from Jackson Hole, was killed with his partner in an avalanche on Ranger Peak in the Tetons. Steve was well known due to his website tetonat.com . Although I did not know him personally, his website was a daily check for me, and I had emailed Steve on occasion for equipment advice. He definitely will be missed.
March 3, Solitude Ski Area - lift served
Last day of the ski vacation. After 3 days at Brighton, we had a great time enjoying the better fall line that Solitude provided. Really enjoyed the area, and couldn't believe the lack of people on what was probably one of the best weekend days that Solitude had this year.
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| Jack boots up Evergreen Peak, Solitude, Ut. |
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| Jack |
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| Len |
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| Jack and Kevin |
March 2, The Day my Niece broke her back.
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| Len, Madie, Jim, Kris, and Jack |
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| Maddie loaded up, waiting for the heli. |
As were entering the Brighton backcountry, off the Great Western lift, we stopped to get a family photo of the Webers. After the photo, Jack and Maddie headed off down the ridgeline. Unfortunately, Maddie managed to catch a bush, and lost her left ski. She went flying down into a depression and managed to fall against a couple protruding rocks. She immediately was in great pain and didn't move. Luckily a snowboarder had the phone number for patrol and got the rescue effort started. The Brighton ski patrol did an excellent job of assessing the situation and getting her down to an area where a helicopter could evacuate her. At the hospital, it was determined that she had a compression fracture of her L1 verterbrae. There was no nerve damage and surgery was not needed. She was fitted with a plastic torso brace to minimize movement of the L1 verterbrae and given a huge handful of pain killers. After two and a half days she was released from the hospital and was flown home for a week of rest before she returns to Boston for college. She will need to wear the brace for a couple of months, but should have no permanent damage from the injury.
Feb. 25, Mt. Catherine
This has been the favorite tour this year, and it certainly delivered today. Hooked up with Crispin, and after a Hyak run, we headed for Catherine. With lots of fresh snow, and the Steven's pass tragedy fresh in everyone's mind, we found ourselves the only group headed for Mt. Catherine today. The light snow made for easy touring, and we made quick work to the summit. Enjoyed 1 lap to the cliff edge, then two through the cliffs. By our third lap we were starting to set off several small avalanches, with about a one foot crown. Great day.
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| Crispin breaks trail through virgin powder. |
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| Keeping it at snorkel level. |
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| Up for air! |
Feb. 18. Monika Johnson Randonee Race - Alpental
No excuses. No trips, nothing better to do. In the past few years, I have always seemed to be out of town for the Alpental Randonee race. This year, I found myself without any excuse, and was forced to lay down my 45 dollar entry for two hours of suffering. This was definitely the largest turnout for the randonee race, with over 150 competitors racing, in rec.(one lap), race(2 laps), and a one lap split snowboard division. Frank had petitioned for an over 70 category, but had to settle with beating down the fifty and over crowd. With something like twenty inches of new snow conditions were great. The one racer from Jackson Hole was even heard to be complaining about having to break trail through fresh snow.
Actually the conditions were excellent if you could see. Seth Davis finally beat the Traslin brothers from Canada. Nice to see a local on top of the podium. Brandon kept up with the top dogs and finished 7th. I suffered along and managed a respectable 15th place. Crispin had to do an equipment swap at his van after the first lap. First his skins had no stick, then his binding started to pull out. Looks like the Tua skis with the rainey superloops are headed for the dumpster. Luckily, he had his "heavy" setup in the van. It is amazing to see the progression of ski gear. I raced on my Fat BD Justice skis, and appreciated the 110 waist on the downhill.
Holly nailed first place in women's rec. Looks like she will be in for two laps next year. Greg Ireton smoked the rec category in his dynafit titan boots and his DP lotus 120 powder skis. He had the fastest first lap of both rec. and race categories. Thanks to cruising the downhill on his powder skis.
Tom (4th) and Frank (10th) were solid in the fifty plus category. Thanks to Martin and Ben, from Pro-ski, for setting the race course, and Outdoor Research for being the title sponsor.
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| First transition from skinning to a short boot section. |
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| Booting up the Fan |
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| Tom Davies on the attack |
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| Holly stretches it out, on her way to the rec. women's win. |
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| There is a reason to go out fast - the crowd. |
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| Kevin applies skins for the second lap. |
Actually the conditions were excellent if you could see. Seth Davis finally beat the Traslin brothers from Canada. Nice to see a local on top of the podium. Brandon kept up with the top dogs and finished 7th. I suffered along and managed a respectable 15th place. Crispin had to do an equipment swap at his van after the first lap. First his skins had no stick, then his binding started to pull out. Looks like the Tua skis with the rainey superloops are headed for the dumpster. Luckily, he had his "heavy" setup in the van. It is amazing to see the progression of ski gear. I raced on my Fat BD Justice skis, and appreciated the 110 waist on the downhill.
Holly nailed first place in women's rec. Looks like she will be in for two laps next year. Greg Ireton smoked the rec category in his dynafit titan boots and his DP lotus 120 powder skis. He had the fastest first lap of both rec. and race categories. Thanks to cruising the downhill on his powder skis.
Tom (4th) and Frank (10th) were solid in the fifty plus category. Thanks to Martin and Ben, from Pro-ski, for setting the race course, and Outdoor Research for being the title sponsor.
Feb. 13, Alpental
With the rando race fast approaching, the fella's were itching for a practice lap. Headed up Alpental for an Edelweiss lap and a little sunshine.
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| Frank and Tom enjoy a cup of tea |
February 7, Silver Peak
It's always a bit of a haul out to the Silver Peak Basin. The views always seem to make up for the extra work. Beautiful day today. Unfortunately the snow was extremely wind hammered and the skiing was very marginal. But still a good day with friends.
Skiers today: Frank, Don, Val, Tom, Jessie, and Kevin
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| Jesse T. carves the windslabs off the NW ridge of Silver Peak |
Skiers today: Frank, Don, Val, Tom, Jessie, and Kevin
February 1, Snoqualmie Mt.
Ran up Snoqualmie Mt. with Don Hecker and Josh McBride from work. Really nice snow above treeline. A little thick on the phantom slide area. Nice skin track was already put in through the trees. We got the pleasure of laying in the skintrack, above treeline, to the slot entrance, then to the summit. No backside adventures with the poor visibility and wind. However, we enjoyed the frontside turns.
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| Don makes turns off the summit. |
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| Josh works the new skis. |
Alpental
Just another crappy day at the local ski hill.
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| Francine, Greg, Mike, Kevin |
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| Bill, Kevin, Francine, Greg, Frank, Rob, Justin |
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