Jackson Hole

Avalanche, possibly from control work took out part of the Bridger restaurant today, only two days after another in-bound avalanche claimed the life of a skier.  Early reports said 2 people, employees of the resort, had been caught in the slide.  Later reports conclude that all have been found and accounted for.  Thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved.

Stuff is sliding all over the place, so be safe out there everyone.

http://www.jhunderground.com/2008/12/29/headwall-slides-at-jackson-hole-resort/

Supprise Pow at Loveland

We woke to a sub par ski report this am. It came in the form of 2" of new
snow with very high winds. We arrived at the parking lot to find that most
of the snow in Summit County had blown into Loveland Basin, making for a nice
little supprise Pow Wow!



Cyn is getting her groove in the pow this winter. There have been a lot
of smiles the last couple of weeks, as it looks like making turns in real
snow has clicked for her.

More Pic's from the Weekend.....

E of Lee&E Company, and a dork ruining a perfectly good picture in the background....

L to R~ Cyn, Me, PV, and E of the Lee&E Company

Midget Wrestling errrrr.... Male Bonding, um, well, you get the point....

Lee of Lee&E Company, and Cindy Lou

Lee and the worlds biggest Tangerine

You will never lose these two, never!

I absolutely love this picture!

The Little's

Always Wear Protection

Scuba Cyn says, "Always wear your beacon in the bowls!"

Old School!

Some peeps from the college years made a little trip to Ski Country USA for some early season turns. I was a little concerned about the snow pack on thanksgiving, but mother nature cooperated and dumped a whole bunch of the white stuff for their arrival. We hit the Land of Love on Friday, afterwards they headed up to their abode for the weekend located in the Evil Empire, no not the Yankees, the other Evil Empire (Vail Resorts). Cyn, PV and I made the venture up to the EE on Saturday.  After signing away the rights to our first born, we found some nice pow to play in.  There was plenty of fun, and male bonding in various inappropriate manners through out the weekend.

Lee, one of the nicest guys in the world, and one of the biggest clowns!

Y'all know the little in pink....

Our knuckle draggers for the weekend....

Mrs Core, and PV.  Its always awesome to get out on the mountain with Cyn and PV, you will never lose them unless they are buried by a couple feet of snow.  I like to refer to them as the lolly pop kids. (FYI PV is a little too).  The camera wouldn't take a picture with a bright orange, and bright pink coat in the lens.

Back Bowls at vail...... 

Exhibit B

Report Courtsey of The Aspen Times:

VAIL, Colo. — A skier was caught in an in-bounds avalanche in Vail Mountain’s Blue Sky Basin on Sunday.

The skier was buried to his waist but was unhurt, said Scott Toepfer of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

The slide occurred Sunday morning on the Lover’s Leap trail, which drops from a cornice below the Skyline Express Lift. The avalanche ran for 150 vertical feet and was 100 to 150 feet wide. It was about 3 feet deep and slid to the ground, Toepfer said.

Vail had reported 12 inches of new snow Sunday morning, and snow continued to fall on the mountain during the day. 

Blue Sky Basin opened for the season Saturday, and patrollers had been conducting avalanche control with explosives there for the last four days, Toepfer said.

“At about 9 a.m., they shot that same slope that failed,” he said. 

The slide was reported at 10:51 a.m. Vail Mountain closed Blue Sky Basin for the remainder of the day after the slide. 

“Vail Ski Patrol will continue to conduct avalanche reduction in the area and throughout Vail Mountain and expects to reopen Blue Sky Basin on Monday, Dec. 15,” Vail Resorts said in a statement.

The Forest Service, which owns Vail Mountain, will review the incident, said Snow Ranger Don Dressler.

There’s always a risk of avalanche on steep slopes, even if the snow has been compacted by skiers and ski patrol has thrown explosives at it, Toepfer said. Colorado’s snowpack also has several weak layers in it now that make it prone to avalanches, he said.

“When I look at this particular incident, what I see is that anything over 30 degrees has the potential to slide, no matter what’s been going on in the past,” Toepfer said.
The black-diamond Lover’s Leap is 35 degrees at its steepest.

Toepfer, a longtime former Vail ski patroller who has skied Vail since its first season in 1962, said he can only recall one other time when a skier was caught in an avalanche in-bounds on Vail Mountain. A skier was caught on Rasputin’s Revenge in Siberia Bowl two or three years after the terrain opened in 1988, Toepfer said.

In Utah on Sunday, a woman died after getting caught in an avalanche at Snowbird ski resort.

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20081215/NEWS/812159867/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1058&title=Vail%20skier%20caught%20in%20in-bounds%20avalanche

In Bounds- Out of Danger?

This weekend Cyn and I played in the snow at Vail, and Loveland. With a ton of new snow an extremely sensitive snow pack any venture up to the top of Loveland Pass for some side country skiing would have been foolish. With 11 inches of new snow Sunday morning we donned our transceivers in bounds at Loveland, as we normally do. Even though the ski patrols at resorts in Colorado do an incredible job at avalanche control work, and rescue preparation it never hurts to help them find you if and accident does occur on their turf. We typically do ski on the terrain that would have the potential of sliding if the conditions were perfect like what happened at Snow Bird on Sunday of this past weekend. The reports say an inbounds skier was caught in an avalanche on hike to terrain known as the eye of the needle on Mt. Baldy. Apparently the woman was buried for an hour before being rescued alive, however she later died of complications. There is no guarantee that if this person would have lived through the avalanche even if she had been wearing a transceiver, but it may not have taken responders an hour to locate her. This tragic event just reinforces my decision to wear my transceiver in bounds.

See the full article here:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11232264

Road Trip?

A couple of peeps threw out the idea of hitting Big Sky in Febuary. Since most of the guys are coming out from the east coast, and we are already just down the street Cyn and I are thinking about making a little road trip out of it. Given the gas prices these days, we thought about doing a little somthing like this...


View Larger Map

Poing A: Home
Point B: Big Sky Montana
Point C: Jackson Wyoming
Point D: Home

Round trip distance 1440 miles
Average miles per tank in the Jetta 350
Cost of a tank of gas at $1.50/gal $20

This would have been totaly out of the question last year......

Like Attracts Like

If any of you have ever questioned this theory, here is your proof.....

Weekend Shenanigans

Decided to goof around with my phone video recorder this weekend, the resolution on the video isn't that great, but you can get the point.



As you can see the little lady is getting into a groove, and her comfort level is rising every time she heads out. Before you know it she will be shredding up the super steep terrain like the pro's.



I only wish the phone had more than 15 seconds of record time.



Smoooooooth, like buttah baby.....



Thank god the ski manufacturers have been turning the tips of the ski tails up. This would never have happened on the old straight planks we used to ski on.

Man if we ever purchased a higher quality video camera this would be dangerously fun.

POWWOW!

Well the snow gods had spoke, and we were listening! Loveland ski area got pounded with 51" of snow over the holiday weekend, and it looks like its just starting to taper out this morning. Cyn and I made it up and back both days this weekend, and by noon on Sunday I was out of turns, completely spent. I guess knee to waist deep pow will do that to ya.

Ironically we were totally out of the "snow know" on Saturday morning.  We helped some friends out in the morning, and mosied up to the ski are in the afternoon to find this:

By late Saturday afternoon the storm was still going strong really piling up.

The pass was closed all weekend, with no immediate opening in sight.  We were putting together our Sunday game plan on our drive home.  CAIC was predicting another 12" overnight into Sunday.

We hit the road super early Sunday morning, as to avoid the ensuing mayhem known as the I-70 rush hour.   We accomplished our objective and avoided the total ciaos that did inevitably occur.  We were not the only peeps with the foresight to get ahead of the traffic.  Big bird (cyn's yellow focus) was the last car in the front row at the ski area.

After a stress free drive, and leisurely breakfast we headed out to the lift line to wait for first chair.  With 20" of new stuff overnight the mood was excellent all around, and the cattle call at the drop of the rope was fairly mellow.  People have been know to be trampled to death while traveling through the maze of disaster in an attempt to get to the first chair on a pow day.  With the occasional cow moooo, and goat call, we made it through with out any incident, and all the acres of freshies awaited us at the top.

By the end of the day it was double dimple smiles all around.  Cyn is really starting to rip up the deep stuff with a year of Colorado pow under her belt, I think the days of the pink poof might be a thing of the past ;)  What a truly amazing Thanksgiving weekend.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, hope your holiday was a great one.  Cyn and I spent our T-day with my bud PV from CT, another transplant from the east coast.  We hit up <3 land for some turns in the morning and chow'd down in the evening to some football.....what a day!  I truly am grateful for all that has been going on in my life, for all the wonderful people, and places I am surrounded by, it has been quite a ride.  Thank you!