I finally got the pictures from our Switzerland trip online. We spent a week in Wengen, Switzerland. It is a car-free village in the mountains up above Interlaken. The ski conditions were not very good but the scenery was spectacular. This is an absolutely beautiful area to visit in the summer also.
https://picasaweb.google.com/Ray.Fink/WengenJan2011#
While we there, we took an afternoon to ride the Jungfraubahn, a cog railway that tunnels up through the Eiger and Jungfrau to the highest railway station in Europe. Only worth doing on a clear day!
https://picasaweb.google.com/Ray.Fink/JungfraujochJan2011#
We spent a couple days visiting Doug & Alana in Basel, and got to see Boo flying down a Super-G course at a small locals ski area called Sattel-Hochstuckli
https://picasaweb.google.com/Ray.Fink/SattelJan2011#
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Even better on Oliver
Doug and I headed to the Stateline parking lot, met up with his friend Marty, and we went for a tour up to Oliver Peak. There was a couple inches of fresh fluff, and lots of untracked snow. Several other groups were there, though no real competition. The north bowl was good (especially the lower half) but we found some very nice untraced over on Ollie East. So nice we had to do a couple laps, and then admire our tracks from the highway on the drive home.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Some good skiing again
We had a good time in Switzerland but the ski conditions were, um, not so very good. And we came back home to lousy conditions at home, most exposures either sun-crust or wind-hammered. I went for a short tour last Thursday on Teton Pass and never bothered to take my climbing skins off.
Fortunately another storm system moved in Sunday and Monday. My friend Doug is here visiting from Durango. We skied Moose Brush on Monday in the storm, coverage was pretty good on aspects that were sheltered from the sun. Stability was good but got a bit slabby as the day went on, due to more wind and warming temperatures.
Tuesday was the day: clear skies, calm winds, and about of foot of new in the past 36 hours. Doug's friends Jim and Karen from Whitefish are also in town, the four of us had an excellent day in Powder Reserves, Christmas Tree, and Edelweiss. I dug a pit at the top of Christmas Tree, CT 15 Q2 on the half-inch thick pencil crust. It skied very nicely. As usual most of the skier traffic was headed north of the highway, so even at 2:30 in the afternoon there were fresh lines to be had on Edelweiss.
On Wednesday, six of us (including Gary and Donna, also from Whitefish) went for a tour out the southeast ridge of Mount Elly. It was a lot colder today, the snow was still good though the south aspect had some noticeable crustiness underfoot in some places. I dug a pit at the top on a southeast aspect and was surprised that I couldn't find the sun crust, although I could see it just ten feet higher on the slope. CT 10 Q2 on a slight windslab layer in the new snow about 8" down, then CT 18 Q2 at the old snow interface. Doug and the Whitefish folks like to call this line "95 Turns", I have to say I'd never skied it.
After two laps here, we all decided to declare victory and rest up a little after three good days...
Fortunately another storm system moved in Sunday and Monday. My friend Doug is here visiting from Durango. We skied Moose Brush on Monday in the storm, coverage was pretty good on aspects that were sheltered from the sun. Stability was good but got a bit slabby as the day went on, due to more wind and warming temperatures.
Tuesday was the day: clear skies, calm winds, and about of foot of new in the past 36 hours. Doug's friends Jim and Karen from Whitefish are also in town, the four of us had an excellent day in Powder Reserves, Christmas Tree, and Edelweiss. I dug a pit at the top of Christmas Tree, CT 15 Q2 on the half-inch thick pencil crust. It skied very nicely. As usual most of the skier traffic was headed north of the highway, so even at 2:30 in the afternoon there were fresh lines to be had on Edelweiss.
On Wednesday, six of us (including Gary and Donna, also from Whitefish) went for a tour out the southeast ridge of Mount Elly. It was a lot colder today, the snow was still good though the south aspect had some noticeable crustiness underfoot in some places. I dug a pit at the top on a southeast aspect and was surprised that I couldn't find the sun crust, although I could see it just ten feet higher on the slope. CT 10 Q2 on a slight windslab layer in the new snow about 8" down, then CT 18 Q2 at the old snow interface. Doug and the Whitefish folks like to call this line "95 Turns", I have to say I'd never skied it.
After two laps here, we all decided to declare victory and rest up a little after three good days...
Monday, January 3, 2011
Beautiful Uptown Burbank
At least I think it's an upper tributary of Burbank Creek. That's Oliver Peak in the distance.
Janet, Guy, Jill and I parked at Stateline and headed for Oliver Peak. We took the ridgeline east of Stateline Canyon, following an existing up-track. Between getting a late start and some equipment issues that Guy was having, we only had time for one lap in the aspen glades and did not have time to go all the way up Oliver. We skied down from the saddle on this side of Oliver, and out Stateline Canyon. The snow conditions were superb!
Friday, December 31, 2010
25 Short is still there
Eric and I went to the top yesterday, just to make sure. The ski conditions were absolutely excellent.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Christmas Tree
Bob and Jill and I went for a tour up on Teton Pass. Andy joined us as well, he is back in town for a job interview and hoping mightily to return to Jackson on a permanent basis. We dropped off a vehicle at the bottom of the old pass road as a potential exit strategy.
It looked like Edelweiss was seriously tracked up, so we decided to head for Christmas Bowl. The run down through Powder Reserves was okay but noticeably stiff snow, maybe cream-cheese-light. It has been very warm the last couple days (40F in the valley, upper 20s up high) and we were wondering whether it was heat-affected or wind-affected or both.
The laps on Christmas Bowl were good, the snow was in much better condition. After two laps, Bob and Jill headed out to cut a christmas tree (more on that in a moment), while Andy and I did one more lap and then skied out Chivers Ridge to the bottom. As we got into lower elevation stuff on Chivers, it was still skiable but very stiff; fortunately it had not been sunny, just warm.
Our next-door neighbor Mary has been the coordinator for the US Capitol Christmas Tree this year, being delivered from Jackson Wyoming to Washington DC. That 67-foot Engelmann spruce has pretty much consumed her life for the past six or seven months. Yesterday was the official lighting at the Capitol; Dave and Petra flew back there to visit and join in the fun. We decided they should have a Christmas tree to welcome them back home tomorrow. Hmm, Bob had a tree permit and a saw. So it's not the Capitol christmas tree, it's more like the lowercase Christmas tree.
It looked like Edelweiss was seriously tracked up, so we decided to head for Christmas Bowl. The run down through Powder Reserves was okay but noticeably stiff snow, maybe cream-cheese-light. It has been very warm the last couple days (40F in the valley, upper 20s up high) and we were wondering whether it was heat-affected or wind-affected or both.
The laps on Christmas Bowl were good, the snow was in much better condition. After two laps, Bob and Jill headed out to cut a christmas tree (more on that in a moment), while Andy and I did one more lap and then skied out Chivers Ridge to the bottom. As we got into lower elevation stuff on Chivers, it was still skiable but very stiff; fortunately it had not been sunny, just warm.
Our next-door neighbor Mary has been the coordinator for the US Capitol Christmas Tree this year, being delivered from Jackson Wyoming to Washington DC. That 67-foot Engelmann spruce has pretty much consumed her life for the past six or seven months. Yesterday was the official lighting at the Capitol; Dave and Petra flew back there to visit and join in the fun. We decided they should have a Christmas tree to welcome them back home tomorrow. Hmm, Bob had a tree permit and a saw. So it's not the Capitol christmas tree, it's more like the lowercase Christmas tree.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Moose Brush
Guy and Janet and I went up Mail Cabin. The trail looked a lot different from last Friday. Instead of breaking trail, the skin track was practically a superhighway, and there were ski tracks on just about every imaginable line including some places where I'd never seen ski tracks before. Going up the pass, I gave a hitch-hiker a ride, he told me that he was in Mail Cabin on Sunday and there were more people in there than he'd ever seen before. So, we were wondering if there would be any good lines left....
The creek crossings in East Fork were fine, not great, but good enough. There was a skin track up to Moose Brush and surprisingly enough it was an excellent track, a nice angle, not too steep. Guy & Janet had never been to Moose Brush before, so they were drooling over it during the approach. There were plenty of good lines left. After leaving the main bowl, I got over just barely on the right side of the spine of the ridge, and found a very nice section of totally untracked for 100 yards or so. That was a much easier route out than going the left side of the ridge, and then having to dodge through the pines the rest of the way.
It was their first day out in the backcountry, so we didn't do any laps. It was snowing an inch an hour starting at about noon, with relatively light wind, the existing tracks were filling in very nicely. Sweet!
The creek crossings in East Fork were fine, not great, but good enough. There was a skin track up to Moose Brush and surprisingly enough it was an excellent track, a nice angle, not too steep. Guy & Janet had never been to Moose Brush before, so they were drooling over it during the approach. There were plenty of good lines left. After leaving the main bowl, I got over just barely on the right side of the spine of the ridge, and found a very nice section of totally untracked for 100 yards or so. That was a much easier route out than going the left side of the ridge, and then having to dodge through the pines the rest of the way.
It was their first day out in the backcountry, so we didn't do any laps. It was snowing an inch an hour starting at about noon, with relatively light wind, the existing tracks were filling in very nicely. Sweet!
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