Alta, UT 3/4/2007 - major slides
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ChrisC
Well-known member
Tony Crocker":2slg2vbv said:
Does Santa exist? Now you are ruining the fun. Thanks.
Big Couloir has exposures issues - I had 40" new and it was wind scoured to rock. We inched slowly to the lip. Still windy.
La Grave was about big sexy lines...entrances were sketchy. But inside, good stuff.
I was scared here...I have big feet...that do not claw...and slide
sexiness
but once inside, it feels all the same
yet I want to go get new
The 2 lower pictures are a lot like Main Chute. Climbing into something like that with skis off, yeah, that would make me plenty nervous.
ChrisC":2yq96nsv said:
No he's not. Big definitely has exposure issues, not in getting into it, but just by standing atop something that high above the rest of Alta that requires total commitment. Once you're in, you're in, just like any other rock-lined couloir. And Little, well...I'll freely admit that Little intimidates the living crap out of me. I've never been up there on a day that I felt that the snow conditions were good enough to draw me into Little, which has some serious no-fall consequences.
Then there's Dogleg. Dogleg requires that you successfully negotiate a bend to the left, hence the name. Fall uphill of that turn and you're rolling over an 80-footer.
I had the same feeling about Little in 1990. But I would have liked to at least inspect it from the top in 2005.
Marc_C
Active member
Fritz is a local who puts up his photos and videos on FritzRips.com. He shot a vid of Little in November 2005 pre-opening. It's a bit more narrow that early in the season. Baldy Little Chute videoTony Crocker":xryywgzr said:
Marc_C":1wvme4k2 said:
Intrepid Liftlines users may recall Fritz' mega-BC day that was linked to from here a year or more ago, bagging multiple big lines in a single day, including Lone Peak. That report left me exhausted just reading about it.
This video, however, left me wanting. I as much as anybody know how tough it is to show true steepness in video or on film, but this video short does nothing to illustrate just how steep and scary that line is.
Marc_C
Active member
Regarding ChrisC's pics....I used to do quite a bit of winter mountaineering and ice climbing back in the day. If there's one thing I despise and find freaky about some of the more recent ski adventures, it's billy goating around in exposed areas in hard plastic ski boots on snow covered frozen rocks without crampons and an axe. :shock:
When I expressed interest in seeing Little Chute in 2005, I of course meant March/April, not November.
I'm not so sure. Knowing how good a skier Fritz is from that other backcountry marathon, and seeing him do hop turns nearly all the way, it's clear to me that it was damn steep and fairly constricted.
Marc_C
Active member
I agree - with both viewpoints. It's just that visually the video doesn't quite convey what is able to be inferred from the type of turns and knowing the skill of the person making them. Just like in rock climbing photos, above looking down is much more powerful than below looking up, but the best is when the photographer is at or only slightly above the level of the subject. Something that's incredibly difficult to do with Little Chute. Compare the Feb photo of the month at Altacam.com with the images in the Little Chute video.Tony Crocker":2vdfgkyc said:
ChrisC
Well-known member
Marc_C":1prpdcys said:
I agree. I hate plastic ski boots on icy rocks.
I have fallen off a cliff after taking skis off at Stevens Pass - sliding head first into the woods. Not good. But fine. Lesson: do not take skis off.
My ski injuries have come through racing (broken leg after fall), and skiing In powder where obstacles are hidden (Telluride - ski caught under tree stump, hit next one - result: broken right hand. Squaw - small rock into big rocks - result: broken collar bone. Alpine Meadows - again small rock into big rocks - damaged knee ligaments.) I'm on a 3rd helmet - others abandoned for above crashes.
Some say uncordinated, others say risky.
