Get Educated

The last day of high pressure was just like the last 10.  Cold (-26F in Portage), clear and light wind.  I met Josh at Ingram Creek and we decided to get our learn on in The Library.  We also grabbed Brian as they headed back to Anchorage due to -22F temps at the Twin Peaks trailhead.

The Librarian looking for a good novel.

There have been some quite impressive lines skied in the far reaches of Turnagain Pass.  Like these, on the south face of Wolverine and Eddie's.  Somebody really got after the back bowl's at the end of Eddie's ridge.

Brian does his homework (that's funny because he's an Engrish teacher!).

Josh taking the final exam after an all-night cram session!

Sorry for all of the school/library references - it was funny at the time.  Stability has been bomber and a lot of great skiing was had.  But the low pressure has deposited a nice refresh to the Kenai Mountains - we'll have to wait and see how everything flushes out.

In other news, this guy showed up and was ready to shred Tincan.....literally.

Level 3 Prep/Observers Course

I brushed up my forecasting and observer skills this past week with the Alaska Avalanche School.

The Level 3 Prep/Observers Course focused on the the standards presented in the Snow, Weather and Avalanches: Observational Guidelines for Avalanche Programs in the United States - also known as the "SWAG".

Led by Tucker and Brad, whom I always seem to run into, we spent the day touring and standing in snow pits on the lower elevations of Tincan.  It was a beautiful bluebird day in the morning, turning to greybird in the afternoon with the winds ramping up - with 70mph gusts on Sunburst and 84mph on Rendezvous!

The previous ~6" of new snow dried out nicely and made for some pretty awesome skiing (...or so i've heard).  We ran into some familiar faces who skied Tincan Proper and Todd's Run....dang jealous!

The view from our snowpit basecamp.  High winds over on Pyramid Peak and the north side of the Arm.

 2mm surface hoar...something to watch out for at mid-lower elevations.

 Five snowpits....looks like craters from a CBU-31 JDAM.

Any snow geeks can find my observation here.  We wrapped up the course at Chair 5 over a beer.  I always recommend brushing up on your early season avy skills with some type of "continuing education" - and the crew at the AAS is top notch!  Thanks Tucker!

The Girl...

Meg and I in a recent trip to Hawaii.  She's the better looking one...

Yep, the two most important girls in my life....Meg and Lobita.  But recently, it seems that La Nina (or The Girl in spanish) has been at the forefront of conversations in South Central Alaska.  The forecast for the next week is clear, sun and cold.  Not very favorable if you're planning a ski trip to Prince William Sound.

I checked out the anti-tracks with locals Matt and Agnes from Hagephoto.  We headed up Tincan for a "one run and done" - and to see what the wind left us with.  Not much...

 Matt and Agnes survey the landscape and try to find a place to ski.  It actually wasn't that bad, we found some decent carveable turns in the protected trees.  Define Powder?  As Rick Vance (February 2011, Backcountry) states, "skiing today was like pornography: great to look at, but a poor substitute for the real thing."

 Me and one of my favorite girls.

Matt Hage took this photo.  It's pretty sweet, and you can find it on his Facebook page.  I heart Utica Club.  Fun facts about "UC" (or Uncle Charlie's as we call it):

1. First beer sold in the United States after prohibition.

2. Only sold and distributed within 90 miles of Utica, New York.

You know you're an Alaskan powder enthusiast when... a Backcountry Ski Magazine is on your dashboard at the trailhead, and your windshield is splattered with State Parks passes.

Front Range Powder...

It seems like I never get to use the post title "Front Range Powder".  Something like "Snowed a little bit, and the wind took it away" would be more appropriate for our Anchorage bowl powder explorations.  But these last two small storm systems dropped some very nice low density snow.  Old Man Wind didn't blow everything away, but deposited the snow in gullies.  Eric, B-real and I pretty much skied out the main Harp/Two Bowl drainage.

Eric and Stella sniff out the dry powder.

B-real enjoying the untracked experience.

Yours truly milking my own turns from the day prior.

It was so good, we skied this drainage three days in a row.  Despite the stellar skiing, we did find some widespread instabilities.  Many E-NE aspects that became windloaded during the storm were ripping out remotely.  These occurred on steeper slopes (30+).  While skinning up the lookers left Harp bowl, the entire slope settled ("whoomped") below us.  We saw shooting cracks and fractures in the gully.  Had this slope been steeper, the entire gully would've ripped out.  I had an immediate desire to go and enjoy the beer in the back of my truck.

But we did enjoy some turns in the nice south facing slopes.

 Lobita enjoying the down.

On Saturday, I participated in the Observer Training sponsored by the CNFAIC.  Avalanche Forecasters Kevin Wright and Wendy Wagner took a group of 7 skiers up to Tincan.  Their goal is to empower the public to submit quality snow observations and make their job of forecasting better and more realistic.  These guys did a phenomenal job and have some amazing knowledge of snow science and avalanche hazard and recognition.  We dug a crew served fighting position (AKA snow pit) and talked a bit about the snowpack in Turnagain Pass.  Although our stability tests showed very good results, the deep-slab instabilities that exist will certainly keep me off of steep terrain with high consequences.  Todays forecast certainly shows what spatial variability and a thin snowpack in certain places will do.

Drawing our sector sketches and going over the rest plan.

Quote I heard while doing a Compression Test: "Ski it if it's white!"

Tincan Trees

I headed to Turnagain today with local ER skier Eric.  There was about 2-3" in my driveway, but CNFAIC reports boasted only about 1" down south.

The tour was pleasantly surprising.  Based on my previous observations from Eddie's and Magnum, I knew the higher elevation terrain was wind scoured.  We decided on some mellow tree shots to the lookers left of the main Tincan drainage.

We made a total of 4 shorter laps and found fresh untracked snow on each run.  The dogs enjoyed themselves, and LB got back on the saddle.

Eric tries to sieze what he can Sees.

I must say that there were some nice lines in the evening alpenglow on the Sunnyside.  Lobita surveys the way back to the truck.

This was a pic from Tuesday's tour to ski PMS Bowl.  I met Jon and Jenna, with Kijik, Chili and Hannah in close proximity.

I depart Los Anchorage tonight for Hawaii to meet Meg.  I hope we get mad snow when I return.