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.

Sled in Terminal Cancer

Corn season is here, and that means crunchy early AM starts, bluebird skies and a very happy dog. His little short legs have him awfully tired when we're enjoying the powder we've seen this year! Corn snow is much more to his liking.

The snowmobiles have been having a field day up there and I bagged on a trip up Full House because of it... the entire east aspect was tracked up and I couldn't see a decent line from the peak. This week's snow combined with sunshine should heal it all up... hopefully the sledders will get excited about yard work sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I think I'm going to need to shift my ski-day goals to less sled-accessible terrain.

Not that there's much of that to be found these days. On Wednesday, a film crew was up recording a snowmobiler who ripped up Terminal Cancer. We always thought that line would be safe from the snowmobiles... not any more. They hired a helicopter to get him off the top, so hopefully that'll discourage the locals from trying it.

I've pretty much written TC off to the out-of-towners, who have it so tracked up these days bumps are likely forming. Still, though, I always thought that beautiful, beautiful line would be safe from the profane sound of jet-fuel-powered sleds. Not any more.

Another day, another Dollar

Took a short tour up to the Dollars today with Mike and Kevin - hard to argue with beautiful fluffy snow, glorious sunshine, and NO (count 'em) NO snowmobiles, other than those using sleds to get to the bottom of ski terrain. Didn't take many pictures as I've posted a lot of them over the years of the Dollar Chutes. Just a couple for fun. The last shot, down Ambrosia, lived up to the name in every single respect. Blower face-shot powder on a steepish pitch. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........






































Here's the real news of the day, though -Terminal Cancer slid yesterday. Pretty big. Big enough to kill somebody, if they were in TC when it went.

A lot of folks are pretty damned cavalier about this shot, and it pisses me off because it's going to get somebody killed someday. Hell, somebody was even making their way up it today, even with first hand evidence that conditions were unstable above the couloir! They were above the debris, below the huge cornice and ice-crusted rocks, late in the day while the temperature went up, just asking for it IMHO.

Darwin Award candidates. Maybe it'll take killing somebody to give this terrain trap the respect it deserves.

Terminal Cancer Couloir, 12-13-10

TC isn't really a go-to destination to me, for a lot of reasons. One, I'm fairly picky about conditions when I head up there. It's a classic terrain trap and if conditions aren't bombproof then I'm not interested. Two, it's a far better climb up, most days, than it is a ski down. So if I'm in the mood for sweet turns I'm not really in the mood for TC. And, three, because all of the out-of-towners hit it, I really don't see the need. I'll head for the sweet stuff, thank you very much.

All that said, TC is an amazingly beautiful and aesthetic place, and when Mike texted this AM with thoughts of hitting it, I figured I'd take the opportunity to head up.

























It was a pretty good climb, once you got above the apron. Because it's so early in the season, the apron hasn't filled in and so was a horrific bushwhack - both ways. At the bottom of the couloir, there is some ice formed up as well as some open, running water - all stuff that's filled in and good skiing later in the season.



















Once we were up in the couloir, the aesthetics of the place took center stage. I never fail to be blown away by its unique beauty. This year, unlike my previous trips up there, there was a tremendous collection of frozen waterfalls along the route. Magical.
















































It's just about 2000 feet of climbing to get to the top.


























Me at the top.



























Mike at the top.






















The conditions weren't bad - better than other times I've been up there. It was pretty turnable at the top, with chalky powder once you got past the early-season rocks.
















































Farther down it was quite icy and I wasn't turning so much as picking my way down.


















































Overall, I was quite pleased with the day. TC is gorgeous, even if it isn't usually stellar skiing.