Help with Backcountry

miemiec

miemiec

Member
I live on the east coast and my goal was to do a little more BC this year. I was wondering how do you find good BC lines? I've heard that some people use topo maps and such. Help would be appreciated, Thanks.
 
All my friends and I do is hike up the mountain stand at the top and just bomb down and pretty much hit all the stuff on the way down. What's up with all these newb posts?
 
i suggest you take a course in avalanche safety first. lots of avalanches went down last season, dangerous and deadly stuff.
 
yea, especially now that the west kootz are like all high def and shit. infact - i may go look at some sweet cliff zones to pass the evening away.
but as far as the original question - find someone who knows, go with that person, be a sponge. venturing into an area blind could get ugly.
and of course the token "go take a course".
 
Avalanche safety? On the east coast? The only thing he's going to get buried in are large heaps of tall tees and kids who say "legit."
 
sorry, i thought that when he said he wanted to do more backcountry this year, he meant he wanted to go a little further west.
 
Check out the tgr forums. Guaranteed there's gonna be a lot more people who have more backcountry experience and knowledge there.
 
come skiing with me, i've figured out a lot of bc in the southern vt area, haystack for one is great, i skin that a lot
 
Dude I've never actually skied true backcountry. We hike the mountains around the resort and I look at all the shit I'm gonna hit on my way up. I've never gone on a pow day either. I live in cali and we get that baked snow and it softens up to where you sink 4 or 5 inches in. The mountain is probably only like 5-600 vertical and it's not steep at all. There's lots of little fireroads though that get covered up and we'll build lips over them and it's fun.
 
Slides happen almost anywhere out of bounds and inbounds on the east coast. Wildcat's been known to have on trail slides. Alec Stall died while filming w/Meatheads a few years ago in the notch of Mansfield when he tripped and got pushed over a cliff by his sluff.
Mt Washington is full of slides. Below are some pics from my trip last year on May 12th. At some point in late April, the far right chute in the Gulf of Slides slid. 2' diameter trees were snapped clean on a slope that ran 20 degrees for almost 200 yards. That's an assload of force on a long, low pitch.
Sorry about the image size...not really.
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I should've clarified. It was 20 degrees for 200 yards above the point we were standing at. The runout ran another 100 yards below us.
 
oh so the mountians by the resort are not true backcountry? what are they the fake backcountry with fake avalanches? oh and you only go out when it is warm, so right as the structure of the snow is starting to change, and is in a week state? then? and 500-600 vertical feet is plenty to cause a fatal avalanch, shit 20 vertical feet is enough. and if it is steep enough to ski down it is stiff enough to slide.
 
Yeah after two weeks of sitting there being baked with no new snow there's not much to change. because at that point it has mixed in with the layer of snow that it fell on top of. By real backcountry I meant like a trip where you hike up, camp out, and then ski the next day. Yeah I do understand that an avalanche can happen but I'm saying that the chances are slimmer. Where if I went on a light snow pow day and it had fallen on icy snow the conditions for a slide increase greatly. And don't give me shit about how an avalanche could still happen, I understand that.
 
You have an icy layer of snow that gets covered with, say 2 feet of fresh snow overnight. There is less friction and that fresh layer of snow will initiate into a slide much easier. Whereas if I go a week later and it has all baked together, there's less of a chance for a slide to occur.
 
That run is called the "Wall" i was skiing HV that day, it was nuts, so weird to think of avalanches happening on resort in western new york of all places.
 
Maybe, but AI never remember bashing that guys gear or anything. I don't know I'm really out of it right now. Having a bad week.
 
when i first started reading this thread i was wondering what everyone was going to say... and i am sooooooooo glad that so many kids have had actual avalanche training and know what they're talking about! jackfunnel: you kind of dug yourself into a hole on this one. everyone here is right--avalanches can happen anywhere, anytime, and to anyone regardless of experience. however, having experience greatly increases your chances of not getting hurt in an avy (or altogether just avoiding areas where they could occur). i highly recommend that you take an avy course sometime soon...

and don't talk about california like it's the lamest state you can ski in, tahoe is bomb :)
 
listern avvies happen int he east, at tucks, on slides in the adks, i even started a mini slide and got buried to my waist in a slide in the jay backcountry.

and with backcountry, get some snowshoes and a ski pack, or at/tele and skins.

hike up mountains, and ski down them. search aroudn the internet or backcountry guides to find routes, or just do ur own thing and explore, thats what i have for people
 
I took an avalanche 1 course last year, and I am very happy that I did.
This showed this one video that really had an impact on me. A bunch of guys were in the backcountry having fun, jumping off this rock (like most of us would probably be doing) this one guy went, and he fell and teh whole slope came tumbling down takign him with it. (it could have happened even if he didnt fall)

but ya I was like holy shit.

talking of backcountry, I got some naxo's I got last year hoping my brother would want them, but he didnt. I got them cheap, and will pass them on to you 250 plus ship (their brand new, pm me for details and shit)

but ya go with people, and always have the right equipment.
 
I agreed that an avalanche could happen anytime, I just said that there were certain times an avalanche was LESS prone to happen. I didn't bag on California either, I fucking love living here. Mammoth is great and Squaw is great. I love California it's an awesome place to live. Yes there are times where we don't have that great of snow, but we get a lot and have a pretty long season. I love California. I have the opportunity for great public schools, great mountains, great coastlines, what is not to like? Yes I did dig myself into a hole but then people aren't getting what I'm saying. I NEVER said an avalanche couldn't happen anytime. Once there was an avalanche in bounds at my resort. Please no one else tell me I said an avalanche couldn't happen, because I never said that. I said there were times that there was less of a chance, but I never said there were times when there was no chance. Please understand and recognize this.
 
understood and recognized.

i still think everyone should take an avy course if they haven't. i've taken a few and i find them very interesting. the last one i took was last spring and it was EPIC; everyone in it was genuinely interested and involved, plus we were all just stoked to be skinning up on a beautiful bluebird day :)
 
Has anyone here seen the fine line?

The biggest shocker to me, is when the 2 ski patrollers were standing right along the rope of the area boundaries. And they're like this is what happens in bounds and they threw an explosive in bounds, it blew up and the snow just kind of had a little poof. No slide or sluff.

Then they're like, this is what happens out of bounds. Throw an explosive about 15 feet past the rope, and the whole face slides.

Scary.
 


i find it strange that the snowpack really knows where the ski area boundary line is.

(something else is going on that they didnt tell you or youre not posting here)

id like to see this, because i call bullshit given your current description.
 
They were probably proving how they had already done avalanche control and made it safe. That or they had already done avalanche control without telling you.
 
It's because they did control all year inbounds and it was groomed by skiers and machines. Out of bounds unstable layers were simply allowed to build up and never really bonded.
 
well helloooooooooo shirley.

i said, based on the given description, it is bullshit. the description made it sound like the trollers thru bombs on identical slopes with the side of the ropeline being the only difference.

the description given made it sound like the trollers were attempting to demonstrate that an avalanche is impossible inbounds. which is what i called bullshit on. and asked what information on the movie clip was being withheld from the description.

huge-go: have you see the clip? what would a demonstration of throwing a bomb on groomed cordoury versus a slope completely untouched all year even attempt to prove? thats just worthless to suggest. unless you have seen the clip and thats honestly what they did.

jackfunnell: see there's a more plausible reason, demonstrating than a slope where avalanche control was recently performed on, it has a reasonably lesser chance of an avalanche event occuring compared to a slope where no control has been preformed. is this what the clip was supposed to demonstrate?
 
Ya that's what they said. They said this is what happens on a slope that we've worked on all year, and this is what happens on an un touched slope.
 
All I want is to not have to be digging ANYONE out of holes.

Take a class. Get the essential gear, and know how to use it. Go with people who have more experience than you do. Read avie reports, dig pits, and pay attention. And know that even if you do all these things, you can still die out there.

 
is it regulated by ski patrol? no? then its BC and therefore you should have your stuff and know your shit. and it doesnt have to be a pow day. shit when it gets hot shit slides all the time
 
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