schubwa
New member
Days on snow: 53
It was time again for our annual trip to Sun Valley for the Boulder Mountain Tour, which is a Nordic marathon ski race. Every time I’ve been there it’s been firm groomers necessitating heavy alpine setups on Baldy or nice smooth roads for skate skiing. This time would be different.
We just barely got there on Thursday after a white-knuckle drive through a serious whiteout between Mountain Home and Ketchum. It was snowing like mad but now with no wind as we pulled into the River Run parking lot. I usually never start in the afternoon, but it turned out to be a great call as all the locals were gone and we got face shots galore in the Baldy Bowls. It had snowed feet before our arrival that week and I couldn’t believe I was in Sun Valley.
Friday morning dawned clear and cold and Deb and I were just cresting the Lookout Express when the Patrol dropped the rope. It had snowed another 12”-18” overnight and we got perfect untracked Easter Bowl for breakfast. We yo-yoed Mayday lift all morning and we’re still shaking our heads in disbelief as to how good our luck has been. I’m thinking it would have been a lot more crowded if the roads had been opened. No one was there.
I have a non-displaced fracture in my arm that prevented me from racing on Saturday. My shoulder joint is sore and I haven’t been able to lift my arm very high, but I am still able to snowboard and alpine ski if I’m careful.
A friend from Bend put me in touch with Tom Shepard, who is married to his wife’s sister. I’d found out Tom is a local backcountry skier, so I arranged to meet him Saturday to go on a day trip if the weather conditions allowed. Everyone else was entered to race in the Boulder.
The avalanche conditions were rated considerable after an active week around the Sun Valley area. On Monday a natural monster roared down into the Big Wood River in Hailey, damming the river and sending floodwaters into a neighborhood! That same day other natural releases crashed into some houses on the road into Warm Springs. I was a little jumpy but Tom said he had a route that skirts a big bowl and allows the skiers to descend a somewhat mellow (30 degree) ridge. It was bright blue after another 6” overnight and I was anxious to tour and experience a continental snow pack firsthand.
We broke trail up the ascent ridge and got some whumphing with some spooky propagating cracks, but otherwise it was a pretty safe climb. We dug a Rutschblock pit and got a RB4 on some facets at 45cm. It was “red” snow (as in STOP), so I was glad to be on a “green” slope. We took two runs in duck butter snow and I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking.
Sunday morning dawned clear again after another burst of snow Saturday afternoon and evening. Both roads out of town were closed so Deb, Dr. Bob Shannon and I elected to hit Baldy again. There was an additional foot of bone-dry pow drifted into the bowls, so here we go again. I know the snow conditions have been epic all across the West this winter, and everyone is jaded, but some local folks on the shuttle were overheard saying they’d never seen it this good. We got in some sidecountry shots off Seattle Ridge before the old legs shut down. The road finally open and we beat a hasty retreat to Bend before the next storm rolled in.
Oh, I forgot to tell you about the day at Bachelor before we left for our trip…it's now called Big Wednesday (1/30/08).
It was time again for our annual trip to Sun Valley for the Boulder Mountain Tour, which is a Nordic marathon ski race. Every time I’ve been there it’s been firm groomers necessitating heavy alpine setups on Baldy or nice smooth roads for skate skiing. This time would be different.
We just barely got there on Thursday after a white-knuckle drive through a serious whiteout between Mountain Home and Ketchum. It was snowing like mad but now with no wind as we pulled into the River Run parking lot. I usually never start in the afternoon, but it turned out to be a great call as all the locals were gone and we got face shots galore in the Baldy Bowls. It had snowed feet before our arrival that week and I couldn’t believe I was in Sun Valley.
Friday morning dawned clear and cold and Deb and I were just cresting the Lookout Express when the Patrol dropped the rope. It had snowed another 12”-18” overnight and we got perfect untracked Easter Bowl for breakfast. We yo-yoed Mayday lift all morning and we’re still shaking our heads in disbelief as to how good our luck has been. I’m thinking it would have been a lot more crowded if the roads had been opened. No one was there.
I have a non-displaced fracture in my arm that prevented me from racing on Saturday. My shoulder joint is sore and I haven’t been able to lift my arm very high, but I am still able to snowboard and alpine ski if I’m careful.
A friend from Bend put me in touch with Tom Shepard, who is married to his wife’s sister. I’d found out Tom is a local backcountry skier, so I arranged to meet him Saturday to go on a day trip if the weather conditions allowed. Everyone else was entered to race in the Boulder.
The avalanche conditions were rated considerable after an active week around the Sun Valley area. On Monday a natural monster roared down into the Big Wood River in Hailey, damming the river and sending floodwaters into a neighborhood! That same day other natural releases crashed into some houses on the road into Warm Springs. I was a little jumpy but Tom said he had a route that skirts a big bowl and allows the skiers to descend a somewhat mellow (30 degree) ridge. It was bright blue after another 6” overnight and I was anxious to tour and experience a continental snow pack firsthand.
We broke trail up the ascent ridge and got some whumphing with some spooky propagating cracks, but otherwise it was a pretty safe climb. We dug a Rutschblock pit and got a RB4 on some facets at 45cm. It was “red” snow (as in STOP), so I was glad to be on a “green” slope. We took two runs in duck butter snow and I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking.
Sunday morning dawned clear again after another burst of snow Saturday afternoon and evening. Both roads out of town were closed so Deb, Dr. Bob Shannon and I elected to hit Baldy again. There was an additional foot of bone-dry pow drifted into the bowls, so here we go again. I know the snow conditions have been epic all across the West this winter, and everyone is jaded, but some local folks on the shuttle were overheard saying they’d never seen it this good. We got in some sidecountry shots off Seattle Ridge before the old legs shut down. The road finally open and we beat a hasty retreat to Bend before the next storm rolled in.
Oh, I forgot to tell you about the day at Bachelor before we left for our trip…it's now called Big Wednesday (1/30/08).
