More explorations

Recently, when it's been a while between storms, we've been looking for alternative ski terrain to the usual spots we've frequented over the years.  I'm pleased to report that yesterday's explorations turned up some amazing options that will mean some tasty turns in the months and years ahead.

Check this out:  can you say Corn Snow Extravaganza?

Secret Valley with the Rubies in the background.

It was OK skiing this weekend, but with some freshies this is going to be stellar.  Kind of a long ways in... and endless options once you get there.

The difference between pros and rank amateurs

I got an e-mail a couple of days ago from a gentleman who had found the blog and who had done a Monday ski trip up Terminal Cancer. As it turns out, two of the members of that party have posted up fantastic on-line accounts of their trip, including an excellent professional write-up on their analysis process for determining whether the trip was a go/no go due to avalanche conditions. I sincerely hope that those who visit this blog looking for TC information follow this link. It could save your life.

http://utahavalanchecenter.org/blog-terminal-cancer

And - speaking of pros - one of their group was a professional photographer who took some magnificent photos of their tour. I think I do an OK job with my little pointy-shooty camera. This guy, though - wow. What an eye.

Craig Wolfrom's blog

Here: Just to encourage you to click the link... there are lots more photos where these came from.

Powdah day!

A nice fat winter storm parked itself over my house this weekend, and left us a whole slew of freshies to enjoy. I was forced to be responsible on Saturday, but on Sunday set out to see what the storm had left us with Mike and his 13-year-old daughter. We headed up to Ambrosia, only to find our friend Kevin had beat us there and laid in a nice uptrack.

Conditions were fluffy enough to make a girl giggle. Zoe couldn't believe how sweet the skiing was.

She was tearing it up. Really fun to see.

Of course, she has a good teacher.

A whole SLEW of skiers showed up about the time we started up for our last lap - just about every local skier in town. We *almost* outnumbered the snowmobiles - way cool.

What a great way to celebrate Ruby powder!

Photodump

Random photos from some random skiing this week:

Mike scopes out lines in the Independence Range.  We skied down into this bowl and ended up bootpacking out. It was a bit aerobic and we decided to call it "CrossFit Bowl". Don't know that the name will catch on but it works for us.

Went looking for new (to me) terrain on Friday. Conditions were pretty marginal - need more snow. This has to be the most craptastic uptrack I've yet "enjoyed" in the Rubies, although that was almost completely due to the conditions. With better snow this'd be a better up. And a better down.

Going to have to come back and check this out during corn season.

Nice view of Ruby Valley from the ridge.

Independence Day

We took a trip up to the Independence Range near Tuscarora on Friday, in search of new (to me) terrain that would offer good skiing and no competition from snowmobiles. Mike and John had been up there a couple of weeks ago and had spotted a drainage that looked to offer some really nice yo-yo skiing. So, we loaded up the sleds, headed up the snowy road and started skinning when we got a snowmobile stuck.  It would wait, the skiing wouldn't.

John on the up track.

Mike topped out and scouting new lines.

The surface hoar made for beautiful skiing this trip, but likely for some sketchy conditions down the road.

Mike drops in.

A few sweet turns.

AAAAAHHHH!  ROCKS!!!

As it turned out, there was a minimally-covered rock band all the way across the face, pretty much negating any thoughts of yo-yo skiing or even a return trip to this particular spot.  Bummer, because it really seemed to have a lot of potential to become a new favorite destination.

Even with the disappointment, the meadow skipping on the way out was fantastic, and contained a couple of adventurous creek crossings.

Beautiful day, beautiful spot, gorgeous snow, good friends, and a stop at the Taylor Creek bar on the way out - where we got to spend some time with a gal who grew up with me in Lamoille, and who I don't see nearly often enough.  All in all, an awesome day - even with the rock band.

Slowly, slowly

I'm very pleased to report that the Feb. 1 USDA Snow Course report shows that we're at 79% of average at the Lamoille #5 snow course site (at road's end in Lamoille Canyon).

Here, see for yourself:

February, 2013 report

We're starting to catch up.

As they say in Nepal, slowly slowly.

A little bitta beta

So, first - I acknowledge that I've been a slacker about keeping up with this blog. There, I've said it. Second - just to make up for having been MIA for so long, I'll post up a little beta about current conditions up Lamoille Canyon. And, just to sweeten the deal - here. Photo from skiing today.

The road is plowed only to the Ruby Dome Ranch entrance just below the mouth of the canyon. Trucks with snowmobile trailers and folks with 4WD have been getting up to the first pull-out just inside the canyon and parking there. People have occasionally been pushing it beyond that (and tearing up the snow base in the process), but you can't get far in a vehicle other than a snow machine without getting stuck pretty quickly. There are lots of big ruts on the road where people have put that theory to the test. The official road closure is in the usual place just past Pete's Corner, but you aren't going to get there in a truck for a while. Don't know why they've opted against plowing this year, but it's a PIA.

This is pretty limiting for skiers. The snow down low is... not skiable, and it won't be any time soon. And it's a long, long skin up the road before you get to skiable snow. For those gazillion of you looking to this blog for information on skiing Terminal Cancer Couloir - get yourself a tow strap and befriend a snowmobiler. Otherwise, you'll be skinning up the road for more than four and a half miles before you dive OFF the road to start the TC approach.

The skiing up high is pretty nice right now, although there is a lot of natural slide activity up there. My partner dug a pit yesterday on a north aspect 9600', and the approximately 50cm of wind-affected new snow sheared extremely easily from the prior storm surface. There was another easy shear at a rain crust about 10 cm below that. Below the rain crust to the ground was very granular snow - in all, about 2.5m deep where we were. Probably not a recipe for skiing aggressive lines.

We skied an east aspect line today, a little lower angle, about 100 yards off of the looker's left shoulder of Snow Lake Peak. There's an old non-functional SnoTel device up there (Lamoille #7 from back in the day).

Mike on the up.

Looking at Liberty

Snow Lake Peak

Cody made it, too.

The snow was supportive and quite turnable, and micro-aspect adjustments made a big difference in whether it was punchy or buttery. Sorry, no pics of turning, just plain forgot. We were having too much fun.