Dec 14 2010

More snow comin’

Awoke to the sound of rain this morning.

When it rains in the summer in Tahoe I love it. When it rains in the winter in Tahoe, I’ve come to accept it. The bungalow we rent is at 5850′ feet. It is low enough in elevation that when warm storms come in, they manifest themselves as rain. Somewhere above us it is snowing. Judging from how hard it is raining here, it is dumping big time up there.

Prediction on Dec. 15, 2010 for snow accumulation by Dec. 21, 2010. Bring it on!

I used to get upset when it rained around the house. Nowadays I look for the positive aspects of rain at home. Rain at home means I don’t have to blow the driveway. It means the snowpack is being stabilized, making future travel in the backcountry potentially, on average, safer. And it means the roads will be easier to travel since few folks in Truckee lose control of their cars in the rain, but tons of ’em do with snow. And it means I won’t be tempted to play hooky and can get some work done in preparation for when it does get colder so I’ll be free to play.

According to Snow-Forecast, 4-10 inches are forecast above 8000 feet. If we’re lucky, snowline will drop below the 7,000-foot level. Either way, conditions should be good in the Mt. Rose, South Lake Tahoe, and Carson Pass areas tomorrow. Maybe even Truckee. I’m crossing my fingers.

Ski you out there.

Dec 12 2010

Jackson heads home

On the road for a bit, but heard some good news on Dick Jackson. Dick’s the owner of Aspen Expeditions, a mountain guiding service out of Aspen. Besides being one of America’s premier guides he’s an experienced paraglider. This past October he had a bad landing after gliding off Mt. Sopris near Carbondale, Colorado. He ended up in the hospital with several injuries. The good news is he is out of the hospital and headed home to continue his recovery and rehabilitation. Welcome back Dick. Looking forward to skiing with you in the not too distant future. More here.

Dec 07 2010

Ten-11, day 3

Took another solo tour on Sunday that started as trip to the pool for a workout. As soon as I turned onto the freeway my eyes saw the crest of the Sierra around Anderson Peak. There had been fresh snow up high and the sight beckoned like it always does when the sky is blue and the trees are freshly frosted.

Part of the beauty of going on a solo tour is you can investigate new terrain without having to consult with anyone on which way to go at each fork. I can meander and look for landmarks that going with a group might prevent. Part of the goal today was going to be to learn about the lay of the land between Tressel peak and the trailhead for Pepper’s Run. It is densely forested and relatively flat so there aren’t a lot of features to go by. The presence of a stream leading into Donner Lake meant there were bound to be tributaries and with the snowpack in mush mode creek crossings were potentially hazardous.
Keep making backcountry turns

Dec 04 2010

Review: Ortovox Kodiak Shovel

Straight connection, or angled 90°



When Manuel Genswein decided to investigate if there might be an optimal shoveling technique, he enlisted the help of university students from Norway and shovels from several manufacturers. His observations on what makes a good shovel for digging in hard snow were sobering. Plastic is simply not worth considering. Every brand of “tough” polycarbonate blades shattered. When plastic fails, it is catastrophic.

It can be a catastrophe with aluminum too, but that only happens when it isn’t tempered. Tempered blades can bend and crack, but according to Genswein, that is usually a defect in the structural design when this occurs. Those shovels that lasted throughout the many excavations were all tempered aluminum, with a straight-edge. Pointed blades bent. Serrated blades tended to have other problems, not due to the serration. And the top of the shovel blade needed to have flat surfaces for stomping on without your boots sliding off. Voile’s tempered aluminum blades were king in this test.
Keep making backcountry turns

Dec 01 2010

The Human Snow Conveyor

A strategy for shoveling snow with measurable improvement.

Practicing how to locate a buried victim with an avalanche beacon has become common protocol in avalanche courses, and to a lesser extent, by private parties. However, in the case of a real rescue, locating victims can be accomplished relatively quickly (assuming everyone in the group is using an avalanche beacon). The crux remains the time it takes to extricate a fully buried victim. Dale Atkins and Bruce Edgerly were the first to raise this point, and to be effective, you need a strategy.

Unfortunately there is a rather large disparity between the time it takes to dig a victim out and the time a victim can survive being buried. Brugger and Falk report that average extrication times in Europe have dropped from 2 hours to 35 minutes. Dale Atkins and Edgerly say that North American data indicate a time closer to 18 minutes is now the average. While much of the reduction in rescue time is due to improvements in locating victims, thanks to increased use of avalanche beacons, and improvement in beacon technology, the time is still dangerously long.
Keep making backcountry turns

Nov 27 2010

Ten-Eleven, Day 2, Thanksgiving 2010

Conditions in the Tahoe area are epic and the Ten-Eleven season is off to a rip roaring start. The last time I can remember such a strong start was 82/83, or maybe 97/98. One can only hope this season is as good as either.

Here in Truckee we received a solid four feet of snow in the series of storms leading up to Thanksgiving. At higher elevations that translates into eight feet, and I mean 8-feet of solid, base building snow, not that airy fluff they get in the Rockies that compresses to half inch per foot of snowfall with time, our Sierra cement is still deep after settling. Getting out in the midst of storms in Truckee is only possible if you don’t have serious deadlines for work looming and you don’t have to remove the snow from your driveway. Here at the Dostie household, we had both – in spades. Our roof is designed to shed snow right back on the driveway and sidewalk several times after it has been cleared. I’m betting the architect was from SmelLA. So it took until Thanksgiving to break away and make some turns for the second official day of the season.
Keep making backcountry turns

Nov 16 2010

Ten-eleven begins, day 1

After teasing myself with a shot from last season I just had to get out and make some turns myself last weekend. It was great to get out on the snow and immerse myself in a climb. Pepper was ecstatic once we got on the snow, alternately dancing on her hind legs and sprinting in circles, then scooping her nose beneath the surface to drink full the scent of crystals.
Keep making backcountry turns