Avalanche Death in the Rubies

 

It could have been worse, but it was bad enough.

A young man is dead, another is badly injured, dozens of rescuers were at risk trying to effect a rescue in remote avalanche terrain, on a day made treacherous by a drought-year snowpack.  The Rubies are not exempt from the dangers of backcountry travel.

It is hard to know what to say.

Three young people were snowmobiling where they had no business being, in the Ruby Mountains Wilderness near Castle Lake. Snowmobilers regularly ignore wilderness regulations around here.  The slide broke above them, according to witnesses, burying one young man, breaking another's femur.  And, according to witnesses... they weren't wearing avalanche beacons.  They had no realistic means of locating their friend quickly enough to save his life. 

Nearby sledders did their best, as did the incredible pros at Ruby Mountain Heliski.  It wasn't to be.

The information is out there.  This has been a deadly year in the winter backcountry all over the western United States, as the dry snow year followed by a significant storm system has layered dense, wind-affected snow over a big pile of facets.  When it goes, it goes all the way to the ground.  Combine those conditions with thousands of backcountry enthusiasts desperate to get out and play in the mountains and, well.... people die.  

As of two days ago, the Washington Post reported that 27 people had died in avalanches so far this year.  That's what we average in an entire season.  Now we are at 28.

The thing that strikes me more than anything is the cavalier attitude about backcountry snowplay that seems rampant among certain groups.  There is a saying that is VERY true... "There are old climbers, and there are bold climbers, but there are no old, bold climbers."  Insert "skiers" or "snowmobilers", same idea.

This has been coming, I'm sad to say.  Modern snowmobiles are incredibly powerful, and high-marking is the game of choice.  The rider guns it straight up a steep slope, a slope that's right at the prime angle for avalanches, trying to get his tracks higher than the last guy.  And again.  And again.  To be honest, I'm very surprised that we haven't had an avalanche fatality sooner.  The sledders have been living on borrowed time.

This young man ran out of time, and far too soon.  A friend who knows him says he was a wonderful young man, with a bright future ahead of him.  

Red shirted again (sigh)

Another year, another surgery.  This time it's a torn rotator cuff/bicep.  No skiing for another couple of months.

I had a couple of days early - once in the Sierra backcountry, once inbounds at Rose.  My hopes for a fat early season were dashed.  Now I'm holding out hope for some stellar spring corn, but so far Ullr seems to be pretty damned stingy.

The Rubies are dismal right now, to say the least.  I saw a couple of guys up Terminal Cancer yesterday - my only thought was "why????"  Ruby Mountain Heliski at least has the advantage of access... the storms have helped them for a few tours but they're having to scrounge, too.

Just to remind myself that a) I can still ski, and b) snow will exist in my future, here's a photo from last season by my friend John Shaefer, taken at Alta.  I wasn't strong enough last year after all the knee and hip rebuilds for the variable conditions that populate the backcountry, but I could still turn 'em in stellar inbounds snow.

A quick disclaimer

I haven't stopped skiing.  Really.

I had both knees rebuilt and a new hip installed in 2015, which has made it pretty much impossible for me to ski anything beyond groomers all season. BC skiing has been out. It's corning up and I'm hoping to give it a go one of these days, but so far my Ruby Mountain ventures this season have been on XC skis.  Fun but not that much to write home about.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be back with new TRs and photos for next season.

Treacherous

This word from Joe Royer, maestro of the mountains and the man behind Ruby Mountain Heliski.  There's been a huge slide above Lamoille Lake... big enough to break the ice and send a flash flood of ice and water through the outlet.

Here's Joe below the outlet.

And here's the slide and Lamoille Lake itself.

The snow has been thin so far, with recent rain up to 9000', followed by freezing temperatures and a lot of wind. This is no time to be cavalier about winter travel.  And STAY OFF THE LAKE.  The ice is broken!

This is your public service announcement for the day.

All hail the weather guessers!

Training for ski season is under way, and our local weather guessers are flexing their ski muscles, too.  Or in this case snowboard muscles - one of our local weather guys is also a backcountry boarder.

So far this year Ullr has been pretty stingy up in the Rubies, but he who predicts such things thinks that's likely to change, and that we'll have rideable snow by Thanksgiving.  Here's his blog posting on the subject.   Early snow, January thaw, snowy midwinter and spring. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Last year our early and mid-winter season was... well, crappy.  No other word for it.  However, later in the year we had some absolutely magnificent skiing, including one of my top five ski days ever, anywhere.  Dandelion fluff- light- powder, lots of it, no snowmobiles - it was too soft, they were wallowing.  Three days of ski heaven, all in a row.  Sorry I didn't blog much last spring, you'll have to picture it in your heads.

If our NWS friend is right we should have a reasonable year in the Rubies... and at SnoBowl, since early snow is so critical for our local ski hill.  I sure hope so, SnoBowl has really suffered the past two seasons.  The very good news is that SnoBowl has FINALLY gotten its 501c(3) from the slowpokes at the IRS, and volunteers can start the arduous process of applying for snowmaking grants.  What a difference that would make up there!  According to our snowboarding friend at the National Weather Service, conditions at SnoBowl are excellent for successful snowmaking.  Combine that with the natural snow SnoBowl does get, and we should have great and reliable ski conditions up there every year.

A girl can dream, anyway...

In the meantime, more yoga, more strength training, more aerobics... and more time doing the snow dance, hoping that Ullr will be kind.

Seriously.  The folks from Owyhee joined us at the SnoBowl Spaghetti Feed this year to do a snow dance for us.  We leave no stone unturned.

Ely Daze

Once upon a time, I spent a lot of time skiing in Ely.

I'd ventured down there one winter almost a decade ago to meet a guy who'd been stranded down there talking with his volleyball, and ended up meeting a world of wonderful people, some of whom I came to consider among my best friends.

These folks liked having fun, and most of them liked skiing in the backcountry. Almost everybody was single, and almost everybody had weekends off. There was a fun local bar that had good beer and live music on Fridays and Saturdays. Thursday night was good for volleyball and beer. And, so, the mountains and the town beckoned.

I spent a lot of days wandering the Schell Creek Range, the Duck Creeks, and Ward Mountain with Dan and Joshua in particular. They were explorers who weren't afraid of long tours and were savvy and experienced mountain folk, and so we spent a lot of time playing in the snow together. We'd climb all day, do some great turns, have Mexican food back in town, drink and dance ourselves to exhaustion, and then do it again the next day.
Good times.

Times, of course, have a way of changing. People moved away, the bar closed, the good band moved next door. Dan, Joshua and I all got married, bought houses, and generally became respectable. Dan and his new bride moved to the other side of the state, and for some really silly reason I stopped driving to Ely to ski.

I have to wonder - why?

The stars all aligned this weekend and I was able to drive down to Ely again to spend the day skiing with Joshua. We enjoyed amazing and endless terrain, beautiful aspens, a gorgeous day and good company. After it was over, we had dinner with some good friends, and with Josh's wife and new little girl. It reminded me of why I used to make this drive every weekend. And I guarantee - I won't stop skiing in Ely ever again.

Eastern Nevada is, if anything, even more snow-challenged than the Rubies are these days, and the high Schells were about the only place left holding good snow. We opted for a trip up Timber Creek, and really hit the conditions jackpot.

Dreaming about the Dream Line.  Next year, hopefully.

This beautiful apron can be pretty slide-prone earlier in the year, but this trip held beautiful chalky powder covered with a couple of creamy inches of blown-in fluff. Gorgeous turning. There was an old wet slide in there that made us thankful for the somewhat cooler, partially overcast weather. Josh opted for a shorter lap. I figured I'd hike up a little farther.

We hiked up again and over the little ridge to a bunch of fir trees that fed into some chutes.  There was some breakable on the way in, but the powder in the transition area had Joshua grinning in anticipation.

Unfortunately, conditions in the trees looked better than they actually were, and we quickly dove back out into the big sunny slope. And - lucky us - the aspens softened up for some really sweet corn skiing for the trip out. OK, a little mank from time to time. But mostly it was tree sweetness.

What a great weekend. What a great range. What a great reason to drive south for the weekend.

Right Fork

Took a trip up Right Fork with Mike today. A lot of walking for not a lot of turns, but it was beautiful and well worth the time. Our original destination was in Seitz Canyon, but we got word from the heli-guys that they'd hit the line we were going for and, well, that would have been a lot of walking for unexpected moguls. It was very, very cool of them to give us a shout.

Dawn broke on the standard Right Fork bushwhack. There's an old, unmaintained trail up climbers right in that canyon. My husband and the other ice climbers used to keep it brushed out, and it's fairly popular with snowshoers and so it's findable for the most part - at least in daylight. Miserable travel in a few spots, but pretty.

We got to the bench in reasonable time, considering the bushwhack, but it appeared that we'd missed the window for my original objective by a few days. The out on Gilbert was bony and full of moats and breakable crust. Un-fun. We took a pass.

The heli had been up there over the weekend and there were a lot of tracks, but even so it looked like fun could be found in these chutes. It was.

Once we got above about 9400' the snow got pretty nice. Creamy, sun-effected powder. Made for nice skinning and a very mellow climb.

The view down Right Fork.

Lake Peak, Wines Peak, and some of the Ruby Crest Trail route.

The first several hundred feet skied beautifully, and those chutes were short but tasty. There was some nice untracked in there, and some big marshmallow humps downhill.

Unfortunately, once we got below 9400' we were back into the crap snow for a mile-plus of down. We got some bonus turns once we got down to the bench, though. It had turned to sweet corn at that point.

And - if any reminder was needed that this, indeed, spring skiing...

All in all, an excellent day - even though I'm going to get to practice my p-tex skills before I take the Gotbacks out again. At least now I know what they're made of... all the way to the inside...