There is a spot just off the ridge in Woodleigh Lane where you can get a little air, hit a soft landing, and ski in open space before you are back in the thick trees. Having sworn off everything to the right of Brewster Knob, we were on our second day of skiing Woodleigh, and Adam and Cris were at “The Jump” for the first time this year. We had skied the area to the right and left, but nobody had come off the lip and skied the open space.
Dad is in the cabin. Dave and I are at the bottom. Cris on the Radio….“We have an avalanche! Huge avalanche! Adam is OK. He is OK. Everyone is safe. Definitely a big slide.” Adam had ski cut his second avalanche. Is it ironic that we all worry about Adam getting killed, but he is the one who has the presence of mind to ski cut? The year he triggered “The Biggie” on Mr. Do! I was ready to blow right down the middle, and likely my death. The slide broke and all Cris heard from me on the radio was “Adam… valanche…. Adam” It was about 10 seconds before he knew Adam was OK. This year he only made Dave and I wait 2 seconds before the “Skier Safe” sign came over the radio. When Adam cut the big one, it broke 3 or 4 feet above him, but he didn’t lose his feet. He settled down. The block above him stayed put, and the rest of the slide raged down the mountain. On our way out, in the run-out skiers left of Mr. Do!, I grabbed a tree and stomped, setting off another slide about 2/3 the size of his. That was a dangerous year.
This year Adam had the presence of mind again to say, “Wait. Let’s see if we can set anything off.” He broke off the cornice. Nothing. Then, at Cris’ urging, cut a hard line. Voila!
The snowpack was, in the words of Craig Gordan, “total f*!*& s*#(@” Joe measured it at 150 cm in wind-blown areas of Sun Spot, but it was more like 50 or 60cm in the woods. There were two weak layers; one at the ground and another about 12-18 inches below the surface. This slide broke at the first weak layer and, surprisingly, did not step down to the ground. The real danger appears to have been the fact that it carried over a little bit of a cliff area (well, steep and rocky) so it could have hurt someone on the way down. The toe was probably only 3 feet deep.
The biggest thing we learned from our experience this year is that we should 1) have spare skis at the top for the snowmobiles, and 2) STAY AT THE TOP until the skiers are safely down. Time is critical if there is a slide. If Adam had been buried, Cris could have been digging alone for a LONG time. If we had approached from the bottom and gotten stuck it may have been an hour before we hiked to the top. If we had gone back to the top and approached from there we probably could have snowmobiled to the toe in 15 minutes. The problem is, WE DIDN’T HAVE A PLAN. All the gear in the world, and Dave and I would have had to make the decision on how to get there under duress. Not good.
SUGGESTED PROTOCOL. Stop at the top. Ready the skis. Clean off your boots. Communicate before every guy skis a line. So if a slide happens the snowmobilers will be able to ski to the slide in a matter of minutes. We already have the XSCREAMS at the cabin. One more pair and we will be set.
We snowmobiled up to the top of Windy and across the PCPC road on Saturday and saw tracks leading into Four Eagle Bowl that were wiped out by a huge slide that broke from the top. Joe had triggered the slide, ridden it to the bottom, and skied away. The paying customers then skied a safe line the ridge down to the waiting cat. That slide was probably 10 times as big as Adam’s, and Joe wasn’t buried. There just wasn’t enough snow.
Back to Thursday and the ‘small’ mishap. I was trailing a very heavy sled with 2 sets of skis on top. I rounded a corner too fast, flipped the sled, and zoomed off without realizing that I had buried a ski, broken the rope, and snapped a tip. No more skis on sleds. You can’t even mount them with the flat side forward because skis don’t have a flat side anymore. You’re skiing on two narrow snowboards. We are going to look at mounting a gun rack on the back of the snowmobiles behind the back seat.
Cris had warned us the generator was not working. We thought we could make it happen, but when we got there we realized we were too stupid to figure it out. Brian and Dad called KR Merback, who went through the checklist of things that could cause the “fault”. Engine oil, oil pressure, a loose wire. Nobody thought of antifreeze. We didn’t figure that out until Doug Wilde and his boys came on Friday afternoon and took a tour of the cabin with Dad. On the phone Thursday night I asked Kerry if we could somehow use the backup Generac to power the cabin. He said all we needed was a male-male extension cord. Brian took the longest cord in the cabin, cut the 3 prong plug from the dead power strip, and spliced the wires. Then we cranked up the generator, plugged the cord into it, and plugged the other end into an outlet. Half the cabin lit up. We were pretty proud of ourselves. It didn’t atone for the broken ski, but at least we had light.
And, speaking of skis, the Powder Cats were able to loan us a pair of Black Diamond demo skis, which were fine, but nothing like the rentals we got from the Lift House. If the Lift House “snowboard” skis made skiing a 10 on the “easy” scale, the Black Diamonds were a 6. The XScreams would be a 2. I came in very out of shape, and my legs were so sore on day 2 that skiing the Black Diamonds was simply painful. For the first time that I can remember I fell multiple times and lost my skis in the process. I vowed to come in next year at 180 pounds, a lean, mean, fighting machine.
Friday was a short day cat skiing with Craig Gordon (Utah Avalanche Center) and Joe DeVogelaere (PCPC) in their 6-man cat (They had to leave after 3 or 4 runs when one of the big cats broke down and they took ours to take care of paying customers.)
We had too much food. The five of us did not use 2 gallons of milk, so that will be enough for the six of us next year. We didn’t need 2 huge boxes of spaghetti. One was enough, and will be enough for six men. One big loaf of garlic bread was probably enough, too. But you can never have too much Granny’s bread.
Late February seems like a good time to go. The days are a little longer. That helped. By the time we had a leisurely lunch on Thursday, got situated in Midway, and loaded the sleds, we only had about an hour of daylight to get to the top from the parking area. That would have been plenty without the broken ski mishap, and the fact that the West Road was snow blown starting below Dead Tree Pond. We had to trailblaze, we got stuck once (me?) and we got to the cabin in the dark. There was even a suggestion of turning around and going home for the night. Having lived through the Greg Davis super-human effort to get to the cabin in 1992, Brian would not hear of it. The problem is we didn’t divide and conquer very well when we got to town. The Mexican lunch at Tarahumara is a MUST, and we should plan on it every year, but we could have done a much better job putting together an itinerary and sticking to it. As I recall, I put together a schedule in 2009 that we pretty much stuck to. It was three weeks earlier in 2009, so we had less light, then we blew out a trailer tire, and still made it to the cabin in plenty of time. So Brian will put together an itinerary in 2011. I may even be out a day early to ski a half day at Alta.
Don't forget your brilliant idea of getting the hot tub running. Cris got it filled and started the jets... the mice droppings and mice hair that came out proved that the idea of the hot tub is probably dead for good. Too much trouble. We also got a visit from Doug Wilde and company who toured the cabin with Dad.
ReplyDeleteTurns out that the broken ski didn't cost anything, as the manufacturer replaced it because they've "seen this before." :)
ReplyDelete