View Full Version : BIG SLides....
Affix Snow
02-13-2008, 10:37 AM
Hillmans....
http://www.tuckerman.org/photos/tucks/images/2008-02-12%20Looking%20up%20from%20debris%20wide.jpg
http://www.tuckerman.org/photos/tucks/images/2008-02-12%20Looking%20down%20Hillman's%20debris.jpg
From tuckerman.org
Now that we have covered the details of snow stability today, we should step back for a moment and look at the big picture. This season is giving us some dramatic avalanches and some of our paths are running way bigger than normal. During our last cycle on Sunday and Monday, Hillman's Highway ran bigger than I have ever seen it go in the ten years I have been paying attention to avalanches on Mt. Washington. This avalanche cleaned out a swath of mature forest in its runout with trees around 60 years old uprooted, snapped and tossed around like toothpicks. The Escape Hatch also cleaned out a bunch of trees and other avalanches in Huntington filled in the base of the Ravine to make it feel more like the floor of Tuckerman. These large avalanches are paving the way for the next big cycle to run even farther. Well developed start zones in many of our forecast areas means that avalanches will be more common as there are less anchors to keep the snow put. We also have a lot more avalanche terrain now. Snowfields all over Mt. Washington and the Presidentials are developing and avalanching. Chris observed fracture lines all along the eastern side of the Presidential Range yesterday. We observed activity around the Ravines in unusual areas including tree covered gullies and snowfields. File this information into your brain to use as you are traveling in the mountains this winter. Expect avalanche terrain in areas you don't usually see it and expect avalanches to exceed their normal track lengths during avalanche cycles.
Crazy stuff!!!!
astrotech
02-13-2008, 11:03 AM
I'll be up there at the end of this month for an Avi II course. This could be pretty cool!
Wow, that's a scary prospect!
What was not said is something that has been nagging at me for two months.....corn slides!
Wet slides are the absolute raging bulls of avalanche. Massive corn snow slides would be like a stampede of raging bulls.
I am concerned that the glazed layers will trouble us in that fashion in late March and April, especially if there's a hefty penetrating rain.
Can't wait to get up there and see it first hand - always impressed by the run outs that take out sections of forest - really crazy how powerful all that snow can be.
M@
Affix Snow
02-13-2008, 11:55 AM
heres to a long and SAFE season:beer: :beer: :beer:
PWDR8S
02-13-2008, 02:23 PM
I'll bet a beer that this will be in the curriculum for the Avy II class at month's end.
I'll bet a beer that this will be in the curriculum for the Avy II class at month's end.I'll take that bet, intending to loose, but looking forward to paying up... :beermug: :D :beermug: :D
surfsnowywaves
02-13-2008, 06:00 PM
Its interesting...this past Sunday, when I was up at Smugg's, I noticed that a couple of my lines held some biiig sluffs. Now, I don't know if thats normal or if it was just because I had never been in that area before and thats just how it goes, but it really made me think about a lot of the avi stuff, and it just seems that this season has created a really unstable snowpack, everywhere. It's definately an unusual year, as we are getting a fair share of storms which have a mix in them, rather than just snow. And when its not snowing, it's been freeze-the-snot-in-your-nose cold.
scottie4183
02-13-2008, 11:16 PM
those pictures are nuts! I haven't been up there yet this year but am looking forward to some trips in march/april. can't wait to see the runouts first hand
surf88
02-14-2008, 08:38 AM
Thats some awesome power right there! When I was up there sat I thought it looked like it was ready to go, and then more loading took place that night. Whats really nuts, is that DaveH saw people ascending that route sunday morning. EEEK.
ascending that route sunday morning. EEEK.
It's crazy... on Saturday, condititions were Considerable throughout, and sure enough I see two people ascending Right Gully.... side by side...
I believe that the Darwin Awards people take entries in the Sports & Recreation category. Clearly, those folks on Hillmans and in Right were trying to get their entries in early this year :doh:
Rider.Steve
02-14-2008, 10:42 AM
Avi runout - Nature's way of creating more riding terrain.
Makes me want to runout and get some!
That first photo is making the Duchess look pretty sweet!
looking is one thing....remembering that all those lines are releasing off a profound ice layer is quite another!
boardman
02-14-2008, 11:15 AM
crazy, indeed! I'd been reading about this in the avy reports, but hadn't seen the pics. amazing. I wonder what's going on in the Gulf of Slides. Last Sunday, while up at the Kitty, the sun shone for a while in the morning, and the GOS looked fat! The Fan in Huntington looked rock-free, as did the summit cone.
Shaping up to be a great spring.
mainwaring
02-14-2008, 12:18 PM
Avi runout - Nature's way of creating more riding terrain.
Makes me want to runout and get some!
That first photo is making the Duchess look pretty sweet!
i'm thinking no mandatory air on the exit this season in duchess!
definitely tread cautiously until spring corn cycle, though:eek:
yuckster
02-14-2008, 12:21 PM
Its interesting...this past Sunday, when I was up at Smugg's, I noticed that a couple of my lines held some biiig sluffs. Now, I don't know if thats normal or if it was just because I had never been in that area before and thats just how it goes, but it really made me think about a lot of the avi stuff, and it just seems that this season has created a really unstable snowpack, everywhere. It's definately an unusual year, as we are getting a fair share of storms which have a mix in them, rather than just snow. And when its not snowing, it's been freeze-the-snot-in-your-nose cold.
This was definitely on our mind Sunday at Stowe. Whenever a lot of snow falls in a short period of time the recipe is ripe. We carried beacons, shovels, probes, and made sure to hit our line early in the morning before the wind picked up. Overprepared? Probably. But I can pack that and everything else I need for slackcountry into a little bitty clamshell space, cinch down the compression straps TIGHT, and I don't even know I'm carrying it.
cbcbd
02-14-2008, 03:44 PM
I myself am curious to take a look into the Great Gulf - it's gotta be fat and smooth in there right now... man, I can wait for the predictability of the spring skiing up there this year.
PWDR8S
02-14-2008, 05:28 PM
I myself am curious to take a look into the Great Gulf - it's gotta be fat and smooth in there right now... man, I can wait for the predictability of the spring skiing up there this year.
I'm lookin to score Oaks Gulf this year.... It ALL looks PHAT! :cool:
NtrentT
02-14-2008, 09:11 PM
Your moms PHAT ! :D
I myself am curious to take a look into the Great Gulf - it's gotta be fat and smooth in there right now... man, I can wait for the predictability of the spring skiing up there this year.
I'm lookin to score Oaks Gulf this year.... It ALL looks PHAT! :cool:can you guys say, "Raid!"
PWDR8S
02-15-2008, 10:57 AM
Your moms PHAT ! :D
You're mom's so PHAT, she makes beeping noises whenever she backs up! :p
NtrentT
02-15-2008, 11:25 AM
You're mom's so PHAT, she makes beeping noises whenever she backs up! :p
Your mom's so Phat, she has her own zipcode :D
And
Your mom's so Phat, whe she wears a red T-shirt, kids around the hood yell "Hey Cool-Aid !! "
yuckster
02-15-2008, 12:08 PM
Your mom's so Phat, whe she wears a red T-shirt, kids around the hood yell "Hey Cool-Aid !! "
"Ohhhhhhh yeaaaaah!"
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