rubbertoe

My new boots have the chip in the sole so that they can find my body and someone make off with some pretty cool boots. I always figured they could just look in the middle of the run and say "hey there he is". I like the powder but the backcountry isn't for me.

Snowolf

Had several opportunities today to think about this. We recived another 20 inches at Meadows since yesterday and at times it was snowing 3 inches an hour. I was over at Hood River Meadows doing runs in Private Reserve which is an inbounds backcountry ares. No trails and all trees, cliffs etc. It was pretty epic, bu on one run, I was hauling ass through moderately dense trees on a 40 degree pitch. I had just completed a toe to heel tuen when my board snagged on a log or something about 2 feet beneath the pow. I face planted, head downhill inthis crap and was completely burried. Just before the fall, I folded my arms up over my face creating an air pocket to keep snow out of my mouth. It worked, and after about 10 minutes, I had myself dug out and back riding. Later, I rode into a ravine and got stuck up to my shoulders. It was a nightmare to swim out of there. Had to dig down to get my board off and then use it to pull myself up so I could swim downhill in the stuff. Our version of pow is wet and heavy and will exhaust you trying to get out of it. Ski patrol had many rescues today pulling stuck people up out of holes. The amount of snow we have gotten is insane. Over 6 feet this week and no end in sight.

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killclimbz

It maybe heavy and wet, but I guarantee it's a lot more supportable than the snowpack out here. If you were riding in the same conditions say on Berthoud Pass and got stuck in the same sort of said ravine, it could take you hours to get out if at all. It's ridiculous how much the snow collapses around here. Once it warms up and we get a freeze thaw cycle it's not so bad, but December through January it rarely gets above freezing. Hence all the problems we have with unstable snow. When I was last out in Utah I can lead everyone on a great run that ended up with a long flat run out along a creek. Figuring that Utah had a Continental snowpack much like Colorado, I went to great lengths to traverse high so we could keep riding along it. Finally we had to go down to the creek bed trail and post hole. Surprisingly the snowpack firmed up at about ankle to calf deep for the most part. I guess a slightly more stable snowpack does that. It took us a bit to get out of Lefties creek but if we had of done the same thing in Colorado, we could have easily of doubled the time do to the snow collapsing up to your waste or deeper. At least in the Rockies you don't don't get as soaked as you would at Hood.

Either way, wallowing around in super deep snow sucks. I've done plenty on the West Coast and in the Rocky Mountain states. It's always sucked not matter what.

T.J.

oh really? what happened to that big, shit-eating grin? i thought that was just a normal day in the BC, buddy.

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Passion Over Fashion

killclimbz

Ha! I said it all sounds like a normal day. Also, I rarely get into the situations and when I do, splitboard to the rescue. I've got more postholing through waste-chest deep snow than I care to remember that is for sure.