Large Slab Material across from Motherlode & Wooded Pow by J. Phelps

I knew that Turnagain was going off this weekend, and has been for a while now, but I just couldn’t afford to make the drive…too many good things going on in the valley.  Friday night the Matsu Ski Club was showing the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film fest, and it was topped off with Sweetgrass Productions’ new flick, “Solitaire.”  It was an amazing story told through inventive and unique cinematography.  The skiing wasn’t even always that great (well, the “skiing was, but not the conditions).  I like that take it or leave it mentality.  The folks at sweetgrass spent two years searching for something unique and different.  They found it.  The story told by “Solitaire” is a must see.  Thanks Matsu Ski Club.  Great event. Definitely motivated me to go out and explore my backyard more.

In times like these, when no matter how hard you search you don’t find decent snow (unless you drive 100 miles south on the Seward), it means a chance for exploration.  What do you have to lose? You could score, or worst case, you end up skiing shitty snow somewhere else.  It’s a win win, or is that a lose lose?  It’s important to remember how spoiled we are in Alaska.  We literally have easy to access, huge, gnarly mountains, right out our doors, in almost every direction.  This weekend Jared, Rob and I headed to a spot that begged for exploration. She’d failed me before, okay, maybe not so much failed, but didn’t deliver.  Like I said, I often go to these places when I have nothing to lose.  I’ll let you decide if we scored or not, but all in all, it was an amazing day of exploration and skiing new, very different terrain.

Motivation for exploration…

Of course, what kind of a local pusher of ski community would I be without mentioning the showing of “License to Thrill” at the bike and ski shop Saturday night.  Not too many folks showed up, but it was just an excuse to dress out in your raddest 80′s gear and watch a sick 1988 ski flick.  Check HPAC for condition updates and seriously…pray for snow.  Maybe burn a few skis?  See you in the mountains!

Fast Times at Backcountry Bike and Ski 2012

The first few days of the course were spent at the Hatcher Pass Lodge Visitor center, with groups fanning out into the bowl to conduct full pit data analysis of the Talkeetna snowpack.  It was heartbreaking to watch our beautiful snowpack being literally destroyed by 30mph+ winds on Friday and Saturday. While the skiing and touring was horribly cold, it was cool to watch the snowpack change before our eyes.  As always, everyone without the consistent local knowledge of the Talkeetnas and Hatcher Pass simply writes off our area as nothing but shit skiing and thin snow.  Good.  As always, if you don’t know, you don’t go.  Thanks to the lack of beta about Hatcher Pass, an increasingly frequent but inconsistent Avalanche Forecast, and an always thinner snowpack than the Kenai mountains, Hatcher Pass remains our diamond in the rough.  A place where a busy day means at most 30-40 people touring in the entire area, craggy misleading peaks that give many weekend warriors a case of the brown shorts, and a weakly enforced, misunderstood boundary between non-motorized and motorized terrain.  The common reaction to Hatcher Pass’ weather and snow was no different during our two days of AVY2 class.  The instructors knew better, but they simply kept it to themselves.

As we headed south, taking the course to the Turnagin area, a new round of snow finally hit the Southcentral Area.  Nearly 50cm+ (that’s about 20″ for Americans) of new snow fell the two days we were there, which made it especially difficult to leave girdwood each morning as we watched the ridiculously low density snow pile up outside.  I won’t go into too much more detail about the course, but I’ll say it was well worth my four days.  Having the mountains as a classroom is never a bad thing, and I honestly have no complaints.  A lot of folks have been skiing safely a long time, and a lot of them have never taken an avalanche course.  Hell, I would agree with most of them that, no, they might not get a lot out of an Avy 1 course.  While it may be basic, a friend, who is also a guide and instructor recently gave me an interesting way of looking at the importance of these courses. In any profession or area of technical expertise you are either required or suggested to partake in continuing education and in-service training (and yes, managing avalanche danger in the mountains is technical).  The arena of avalanche and snow interpretation is no different.  I’m a wildland firefighter, and used to be a lifeguard for quite a while.  Without continued training and practice, there’s no way I could have done my job effectively.  Now…take a minute and really think about it.  When is the last time you did a full group beacon check?  Buried a beacon and found it?  Buried two?  How about actually understood what an ECT or CT test is telling you about the snow, and I mean really understood, not just provide you with a quantitative asset.  Finally and most importantly, when is the last time you gathered together with 15 people and just talked snow, terrain management, and snow travel for three straight days? I’m not trying to sound pretentious or elitist. My point is…these classes are worth their weight in snow.  Deep, blower, over the head kind of snow!

It’s looking like our weather will be getting more cloudy, precipitous, and consistent again. It’s been between flurrying and snowing in Ptown since early this morning, but nothing significant to report.  The cold weather will also be hanging around, but the forecast looks like a weather pattern similar to the latter half of December, with clouds, slight clearing at times, and consistent yet low snow amounts.  Of course, this is always subject to change as the lows shift and move about the north pacific and bering sea. In fact, as of last night, NOAA still seemed unsure of the track of the upper level low pressure systems, only providing forecasts until thursday PM (see image at right).  As always, check HPAC for updates on snow conditions.  See you in the mountains!

This weekend saw some amazing skiing. For me it was all about eating a hue grease breakfast, and then soaking up as much sun and snow as I could.  The pass was about the busiest it’s been all season.  Sleds, boarders, skiers, snowshoers…you name it, they were out there.  Lots of big lines were skied in many locations, including some I haven’t seen ridden in a few years thanks to our meter and a half snowpack.

I’ll keep the poetic prose on this update to a minimum.  Without further adieu, I present the first HYT edit of the new year.  Here’s to 2012 skiers and riders!  We’re glad to share the mountain life with you!

And they think tele skiers are vegetarians

I want to thank my buddy Adam for coming out and riding the Talkeetnas on MLK Day.  Adam charged our line today and I was honestly reminded that I don’t get to ski with him enough.  I’ve posted some of his video work on HYT in the past, but it case you missed it…here’s the link.  We’re all trying to figure out how to keep this life going….Support local folks trying to make fun art.

In social event news, don’t forget about the 80′s ski movie/gathering at Backcountry Bike and Ski on the 28th of January. I’ve posted the flyer below…but in case you missed it, You HAVE TO DRESS IN 80′s ski gear. $2 bucks at the door to cover having the event. Things could get heavy, so bring your North Face One Piece and be ready to break it down.

As always…check HPAC for snow and condition updates.  This high pressure looks to hold on for a while.  The wind is already howling at my place, and moving tons of snow around. When that next storm comes, make sure you know what kind of snow you’re working with.

Jared finds the light to open’er up on Presidents

Secondly, my other ventures include starting up a business with my friend B Vaughan.  Our company’s name is Ptarmigan Ptrails, and we hope to be bringing some amazing mountain biking and hiking trails to the region over the next few years.  In conjunction with PTrails; myself and a working group in Palmer has been feverishly slaving away to get funding and construction of a Palmer Bike Park under way in summer 2012!  So, why am I telling you all this?  Does it really matter whether I update or not, or what I do?  Well, to me it does, and I don’t want to let down the people that actively visit the site.  So with that said, bare with me, enjoy the photos in this update and keep checking back for more!  I promise we won’t disappoint.

Steeze-Master 5000                                        Rolling over the blower

After coming off a four day trip on Resurrection Pass (brutal), I gave my toes a few days to recover and was getting antsy to make some turns in the high country.  There’s a rag-tag crew of the usual folks hanging around during the holidays, and we managed to put together a pretty fun pickup crew of ski partners three days in a row.  I always sound off on here about how much I love Hatcher, how great the community is, and so on and so on, but the past few days have been downright epic.  Mitch came up from Anchorage for the first time in month, and along with Jared, Logan and Jon, we headed up to ski Microdot.  The south face was looking less than appealing, so we dropped in to deep deep Nosebleed, finding untracked snow, and blower, although grabby, pow!  The light was in and out, but the best part of the day was trading off hooting sessions with Jeff Kase and his bud Mark, who were yo-yoing runs with us all afternoon.  What a great place to live, where you can head up in to the mountains, ski with new partners, see two cars in the lot, and have a great comraderie with everyone you see in the pass.  That’s what I’m all about, that’s the reason I started HatchYourTrax.  I love seeing people hoot and holler for each other, especially from across the valley or watching from the skin track.

Friday, Jeff, Jared, Mark and I toured up President’s…what has seemingly become our new holdover. President’s, no, all of Marmot Mt, has taken on a new face this year.  We’re exploring new zones, finding stashes of spines, drops and ridges we’d never even thought to explore. I’m truly in ski bum heaven; wait…did I pay my mortgage? Yeah…ok back to it.  We lapped up the SE face of president’s and were treated to ever improving light.  Besides the cold weather, we couldn’t have asked for a better session.  We just keep lucking out on these holes in the fog layer.

The same goes for today….Erin, Jared, Nick and I pulled it together for what we thought would be a mundane morning of tree skiing in low angle meadows, but as we drove higher up the pass, the layer of clouds began to, not necessarily burn off, but, simply end.  The clouds just sat between an upper atmosphere inversion and the shit-soup that has socked in Ptown for the past two days.  We opted to ditch the meadow plan and toured up Marmot proper, bypassing the decent light on the main gut of the peak and dropping first tracks into Rae Wallace.  Erin’s been craving a line in Rae Wallace all season, and she got first turns.  What a morning.  we capped it off with a hot chocolate and warm toes inside the A-Frame.  I’m sorry, but you just can’t beat that and no…I’m not driving to Turnagin.

Jeff killin it – slashing curtains at the White House!

Before I go, in rad, hot style, I wanted to let everyone know that HYT and Backcountry Bike and Ski will be showing one of Greg Stump’s classic ski films on Saturday January 28th, at the shop in downtown Palmer.  This event is just for fun and for folks to come hang out, so don’t expect a movie screening/premier type of atmosphere.  The cost is $2 at the door, and you have to dress in some type of 80′s ski gear.  Don’t be a gaper, you know, too cool to get into the hot style of the 80′s.  It’s all in fun. Show up in your North Face one-sy, Rear Entry boots, Ray Ban’s, Vaurnet Goggles, and bring your 210′s!

What: 80′s Ski Movie Night

Where: Backcountry Bike & Ski

When: Saturday, January 28th…7pm

Cost: $2 at the door

Erin and I head to Florida for 10 days, so, ski some deep, look for that break in the clouds, and enjoy the best Talkeetna Winter in years!

Archangel Road…President’s Day Run and Lookers right gully

As I drove up the road, the evidence of strong, gusty winds and heavy wet snow was immediately apparent.  Leeward slopes were fat and loaded with new snow, while windward ridges were exposed from snow transport, wind loading, and showed recent avalanche activity.  A couple of DOT employees were sitting at the hairpin by the motherlode, and the road to the top was closed.  DOT was removing avy debris from somewhere around mile 17….that’s all the info they had.  Besides the usual culprits creating avy’s that cross the road, literally every drainage and gully on SE facing Presidents Ridge (or Marmot Mountain, whatever you call it) had natural avalanche activity.   Some slides were new snow failing in soft slabs, while others ripped out to the ground.  Even lower angle slopes in the lower sections of the drainages slid. As stable as our snow was, it was comprised almost entirely of light density fluff and faceting snow.  This storm came in hot, heavy and wet…could be good for our snowpack in the long run. Let’s see what this avy cycle flushes out. Be careful out there, and check the Hatcher Pass Avy Center for more detailed info.  The link is in the right hand sidebar under Snow Observations (HPAC).

Marmot Peak is the black & white shot on the right

According to the NWS, our weather pattern is holding strong, with a day or so of clear weather and another round of triple point lows slamming into the region.  Praise Ullr and get some!  The next storm will be warmer than today, but nowhere near as balmy as this weekend’s event.  The consistent pattern of snow and blow looks to continue for Anchorage and Turnagin Arm as the Talkeetnas set up for a decent storm and slightly lower temps.  Check the marmot cam and Independence Snotel as the storm develops.

December 7th, 2011 – A day of infamy…and heavy, DUMPING SNOW!

In other news…super huge thanks to everyone who came out to watch Attack of La Nina! Rob delivered on the suds, MSP delivered on the sick skiing, and valley skiers showed up to support the local scene!  We had a blast and hope you all did too!  Keep checking back for more updates and info on our show in January!

  
Clenching for Quarters!  Those stickers were worth it right?

I’ve been skiing with a lot of different people lately.  And, while it’s actually been quite fun and energizing, keeping the dedicated Hatcher crew has been difficult.  It’s windy, the snow is thin, there’s minimal storm skiing (that you know of)  and well, people have jobs.  I guess that’s the difference between skiing professionally, and being a professional that skis.  For most of us, skiing isn’t the sweet life portrayed in lifestyle shots and endless sections of ski porn and patagucci ads.  The reality is a lot different, and for those of you reading this, I probably don’t need to write it, because you know.  Being a professional that skis (the only kind of pro skiers that I know) means accepting shitty light and thin snow, understanding that some skiing is better than no skiing, and waking your happy ass up at 6:30 AM to get out and beat all the other warriors to the leftover fresh from the mid week storm.  These are good ski partners…don’t take them for granted.  I skied 4 0f the 5 last days, everyday with different partners.  Today held good snow with horrible light and I actually began bitching about it.  Shame on me. SHAME.  Here’s to the professional working skiers, and to me keeping my spoiled rotten, powder filled, ski bum mouth shut.  Here’s to skiing!

As for snow conditions, there’s a myriad of conditions out there, but decent to excellent skiing as well. Friday we storm skied lower gov and ran into a whole crew of local folks.  It was puking snow, but with temps around 5-10 degrees, the snow density was extremely light.  Saturday and Sunday saw us skiing off the peak of Marmot, down the western gullies above the A Frame.  Great snow.

The windslab is still obvious in many windward locations, but on the west and southwest slopes, there seemed to be significant leeward loading, and the skiing was bottomless and blower (except for a few rocks).  I only dug a small hand pit on saturday morning.  The windslab seems to be bonding pretty well to the layer of lighter snow below it.  It took a lot of strength to get the slab and column to shear off, and when it did, the failure was still of q3 quality. The lingering windslab from last weak is pretty unreactive, but could still be a problem if we get heavier snow.  The snow below the 11/17 windslab is showing signs of faceting, so as the storm snow piles up this week, keep in eye out.

A temperature inversion on Saturday brought calm winds, clear skies above 1000′ and temps in the 10-15 range. No obvious signs of natural avalanches occurring during or after the storm, but there were a few cornice breaks above gullies on the upper western face of marmot (probably my biggest concern). The new snow was extremely light, and considering the rate of precipitation, the snowpack seems to be adjusting well.  There’s a huge storm system moving in from the South and tracking to the west over the next few days.  NWS issued a special weather statement for the South Central Area.  The temps are supposed to rise Wednesday night, but hopefully we stay cold enough to keep it all snow.  Hope everyone had an amazing thanksgiving, and hope to see you at Attack of La Nina this Friday!

Following one of the coldest tours I’ve been on for some time (Friday), we headed out Sunday with no clear objective in mind.  Knowing how tricky reading the snow would be, we opted to head deep into Fishhook valley.  Perhaps the wind hadn’t blasted the upper reaches sheltered by the towering slabs of Granite mountain and Independence Peak.  While there were small pockets of good snow, it was extremely difficult to anticipate where a wind slab and wind buff began.  There was sustrugi pow and sustrugi windslab.  We never found that elusive line holding the pow.  Not on the north, south, east, or west aspects.  Given, some aspects have better conditions than others, but I still wouldn’t call it great skiing. I don’t have the picture of it, but someone literally traversed the entire upper 1/4 of the slope from Hatch Peak down the entire length of Bald Ridge.  Sounds fun!

When mellow turns and a long tour are on tap for the day, I often end up being extremely surprised by how much fun I’m having.  Sometimes you just need to take it all in, to remind yourself that…this place is AMAZING. I mean, truly, it sounds doofy, but no eloquent prose or written form, nor photo or video, can accurately describe the presence, energy, and awesome experience that is touring through Hatcher Pass.  We spent the afternoon eying lines for the future, making mental notes on routes and safety zones, and touring through massive boulder fields sitting below gigantic granite slabs.  While some folks were wallowing in the epic conditions on Marmot, deep in the valley, Erin and I skied a 300′ apron while Jared and Kimbrough attempted to make it to Indy Gap but lost the light and the motivation to go higher. All in all, it was a pretty great little Sunday; a Sunday touring with great friends.  In my eyes, Hatcher totally delivered the goods.

GET LOW!

In weather news, it looks like we’ll be getting a small refresh tonight, but along with that, the valley will be getting winds into the 30mph range.  I’m interested to see how the snow piles up at the pass.  Following the storm it’s supposed to stay cold and breezy. The current snowpack is strong, but with new snow and windloading, our avalanche danger will definitely increase.  In our present case, the top layer of the snowpack ranges from breakable to bomb proof wind slab, to areas of small, albeit deep wind deposited light snow.  Pretty much, there’s no uniformity on top.  Under those slabs, lies less dense and even faceted snow, sitting atop a more uniform layer of consolidated snow,

I’ll try and head up tomorrow afternoon to see what the storm brings and keep everyone posted.  As always, keep checking HPAC for detailed observations and updates.  Turnagin, Kenai and the western sound are in a Blizzard Warning, with gusts up to 65mph near Whitter and a forecasted storm total of 17″ in town.  That opening day at Alyeska could be great (if you have a pass).  It’s about time we finally  get a low that pushed back on the intense high pressure sitting in the interior.

Hap has a crappy view from his windows

The three day wind event had ravaged the peaks and ridgelines, blowing away a good portion of the snow and revealing empty exposed ridges.  Much of the snow was pulverized, and even usually protected fishhook valley was whipped into long lines of sastrugi and windlsab.  Erin and I headed to the SW facing, lower rollovers just below microdot, and dug a couple of pits and compression test.  The results were very similar to what Jed found. The snowpack is showing strength.  Our columns were 102cm deep with hard failures at CT23 for the first column, and CT22 for the next.  The columns didn’t shear clean, with q3 results in two locations 63 and 85 cm from the ground.  We couldn’t get the whole column to fail within the parameters of the test. The failures happened at the new/old snow interface from last week’s storm, and in areas where more wet, dense snow was deposited as it warmed from 11 degrees to 25 in one day during the last storm.

Below, I’ve included a snow pilot result graph from Jed at HPAC.  I’ve started messing around with this program, and it’s pretty easy to use.  If you’re out, digging around in the snow, and recording your results, send them over to Jed@hatcherpassavalanchecenter.org. The more data we can collect the better our local forecasting and reporting can be.  You can find the  Snow Pilot program here.

Courtesy of Jed Workman (HPAC)

It’s great the snowpack has decent strength, it’s unfortunate the layer you would be “skiing” is crap.  There’s some pockets of deposited wind buff, but it’s not very uniform.  Some of the north facing lines looked like they were holding, but then again, without sunlight on the snow I couldn’t be too sure.  Bottom line is…we need more snow.

Maybe some goods in there?  Maybe?

Seeing that it was still graybird, we committed to meadow skipping, and avoided the high alpine.  While there was amazing coverage down low for November, we were getting consistent whoomping and collapsing of the snowpack.  We lapped up the meadows in the afternoon twilight, that soft glowing amber that you only see in early Alaskan winters.  We were hooting and hollering, having a blast as we party skied the slopes. Check the vid below…it’s not a piece of art, but it’ll do if you like local yokels skiing in the hills.

We drove to the top to take a look sunday evening, and were suprised to see some folks getting after it.  The wind was pluming snow off Bald Mountain Ridge, 4068 and Skyscraper…things looked to be getting funky. Considering the wind & temp changes from the storm, as well as constant whoomping, I was pleased with our day. Still, you get that, “shoulda gone there” urge when you see those lines that could have been yours.  Some folks lapped it up on lower Presidents and a few bootpackers wallowd their tired asses up Marmot.  Took them over 4 hours to reach the first false summit.  Respect.

Shooting crack 1..2..3

Being the ski bum that I am, I ran some errands and made it up to the mountains around one today.  The wind had worked thousand dollar run and Hatch Peak, ripping from the NW out over the exposed ridges on it’s way out of the fishook and little su drainages.  The standard uptrack of marmot, the south face, was riddled with 4-6″ windslabs and areas of rotten, exposed facets only 18″ from the ground.  I ran into a fellow workday traveler, and we toured up the ridge together, gaining the summit of Fish around three pm.  The first west shots down the face of Marmot looked like crap.  Wind hammered, slabby, and not worth the janky ski all the way down.  I thank the snowboards before us for exposing the rotten conditions that we would have encountered.  The snow further up the ridge looked superb.  Just upridge, out of the wind, sat deep wind deposited goodness, that talkeetna kind of blower that you dream about.  In fact, I’m dreaming about it now.  With no significant collapsing throughout our entire tour, and knowledge of no snow for nearly 36 hours, I gave it a go on one of my favorite runs in the area, sharing my excitement with only my dog.  Some folks had skied a similar line as well, but, more power to them, they beat me to it.

Drool...yes please.

There were some lines near the SE chute on Skycraper, but only about 1/3 of the way up the slope.  I guess it was worth it?  The north side of 4068 has ground exposed, as does the north face of Bald Mt. Ridge.  Lots of snow deposited on the south side.  It could be good, but, keep checking the Hatcher Pass Avy Center for updates.  Some areas could be pretty rotten.  On that south face I found that 4-6″ wind slab on new snow, on top of a dense layer, sitting atop facets on the ground.  I know it’s not very detailed, but you get the idea.

Lastly, I want to bring up the issue of motorized use at Hatcher.  I ran into two very different types of motorized users the last two days.  First, on sunday, the annual poach of lower government peak unit was conducted by the usual perpetrators.  We avoided the bench and frostbite ridge simply to keep our tour in a positive light.  This situation is bothersome because…we know who it is, and we know they don’t care.  They’ve told us.  The second was a gentleman and his girlfriend who parked in the Marmot lot this afternoon.  After watching him for a bit, the guy backed his truck up to the snow bank, and began to unload his sled.  I calmy walked over and informed him that the area is not open yet.  Our conversation is as follows (no embellishment):

Me: Hey man, I don’t want to be rude, but this lot isn’t open for sleds yet.  There’s not enough snow.
Guy: Oh mann, well where is open? Anywhere?
Me: No, there’s not enough snow. There’s a sign right there.
Guy: Well, what’ll happen, who will know? I’m just going up the trail.
Me: Uh…you’ll get a ticket, the rangers will write you one.
Guy: Oh..well…how much is the ticket, not too much right?
Me:  Dude…it’s not open, there’s a sign right there, insufficient snow.  Why do you want to piss people off right now for no reason?
Guy: What people?
Me:  There’s a lot of people who seriously hate snowmachines. You’re not doing yourself a favor.  The rangers are on the other side of the hill, they will write you up.  Sorry man.
Guy:  Yeah yeah, alright.

I walked away, and he drove away.  Why did I find it necessary to inform you of this?  Because, the difference is, this guy doesn’t know the rules.  He had no idea, no inkling of what’s going on.  The rangers have been preparing for the sled opening this past week.  As usual, their signs are small, unreadable, and there are absolutely NO MAPS  clearly present to indicate the delineation of motorized and non/motorized areas.  Tell the rangers and state parks they need to do better.  Seriously…why have rules if they aren’t followed; by the enforcers or the rule breakers.  Sleds are not bad, but neither are non-motorized areas. Do you know the boundaries?

Don’t forget our screening of MSP’s Attack of La Nina.

Come out for a fun time and meet some of your fellow valley riders!  Grow the community!

But honestly, who cares. Any foolhardy approach to avoid winter in AK is a joke. My blood is circulating like a champ from three weeks in the lower latitudes, the sun is out, and there’s new storm snow to ski.  We came home, rested 6 hours, ate a huge Alaskan breakfast of thick cut bacon, eggs, chilli, and coffee, and proceeded to head into the mountains. I say, embrace the cold, grow a beard, layer up and hit the mountains…winter is ON.

Zach and Krampster were along for the fun, and we all decided a tour up Marmot was in order.  A few souls had made the trek up the SE face, but only descended their uptracks.  As we skinned up the face the sun warmed our bodies, and we forgot about the fact that it was 5 degrees outside.  The new snow ranged from thin dust on crust to pockets of two feet plus of nice windbuff cold powder.  We dug an extended column around noon, on a SE face, on a 38 degree slope.

11/8 Marmot Pit

- Depth: 90-95 cm

– New/Old Snow Interface: 60cm from ground

- Weak Slab  40cm from the ground down to 5cm

- 5cm and below is depth hoar

The column was not very reactive, and we found low/moderate stability (CT8Q2).  Although stability was low/moderate, there didn’t seem to be much energy. Initial reactions in the columns were sloughing on the new/old snow, as expected. The second column failure occurred on the  more cohesive slab at 40 cm (CT10Q3).  This portion of the column had a willow shrub in it, so take the whole thing with a grain of salt.  With such a thin snowpack, I think as usual, there’s a lot of spatial variability.  Use your own best judgement, and as Jed has said…keep digging those hand pits.  The column results were not very exciting, and there just wasn’t a lot of energy that had us worried.  We summitted the first lower peak from the lot, and decided to give it a go on the west flank of Marmot.

I know we’ve been gone a while but we have some big news.  For the second year in a row, HatchYourTrax and Backcountry Bike and Ski will be showing the new MSP Flick: Attack of La Nina. We will be having two screenings on Friday, December 2nd.  So, get your stoke meter up, and get ready to have a great time.  As of right now, Palmer will be the only SC Alaska location to show this flick. Show details and trailer below:

MSP’s latest triumph, “Attack of La Niña”, chronicles the deepest North American winter in recent history.  This new film follows in the footsteps of “The Way I See It”, MSP’s 2010 release and the most decorated ski movie of all time.  “Attack of La Niña” showcases the talents of today’s best skiers in a journey through the snowiest winter of their lives.  This action-packed film – captured using the most state of the art camera equipment available – demonstrates the limit of what is possible in modern freeskiing.  Featuring super steep descents, unbelievably deep powder, and giant airs, “Attack of La Niña” will transport you to Colorado, Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, California, and many other world-class destinations.

What: MSP’s Attack of La Nina

Where: Backcountry Bike and Ski’s new location

When: December 2nd, two showings, 6:30 & 8:30

Price: $12 pre-sale, $15 at the door (limited seating)

Schwag and Raffle giveaways! Tickets available at Backcountry Bike and Ski Friday November 11th!

Shoot us an email for more info!