Wade and I had one of the few longer duration tours that we do this
Saturday. The plan was to head up to Whitepine lake and ski the West
facing slopes but when we got up there, having talked to some people
just getting off the hill, we changed our plan to the shaded East slopes
on the ridge between White pine and Red pine, locally known
as...yup...Pink pine. Pink pine is usually the place to go if you don't
have a lot of time, or a touring buddy because its safe, well traveled
and short. Wade and I decided we we ski lap it to make good on our
promise of a good long tour.
We got started late
because of high wind concerns and by the time we left the car it was
past 11:00. No matter, we had gained the ridge by 12:30.
(wade being "nonchalant" on pink pine ridge)
After we got to the top, We dug a pit to conduct a Rutschblock Test
Here is wade doing some SCIENCE!
So we dug a pit and despite it not being deep or long enough, we went ahead with our tests
A Rutschbnlock test is about 2 things;
Effort required to sheer
and
Sheer Quality.
Sheer quality is considered the more important of the two because it describes the likelihood of a triggering event moving the slab and its intensity. The Effort required to sheer is indicative of the amount of force it is likely to take to initiate a slide on the slab.
Wade stepped on the slab to start us off
And After 7 hard jumps on the upper part of the block
We got a failure
The line you see in the first pictures is where just below the rime crust, where the block failed. Just underneath the hard icey rain layer was a thick nest of facets that act like fragile little sissy's trying to carry a washing machine up a flight of stairs.
The test results were RB7 - Green
Sheer Quality Q2 - Yellow
Based on this info and the other indicators we saw as we were hiking, it confirmed the avalanche report for the day which indicated L2 conditions on West facing loaded slopes. We felt very confident that the likelihood of triggering a slide was remote.
So, after that we hiked up the hill higher and dropped in through some trees. It was GREAT!
Here are a few stills taken from the video I am still working on.
So there you go...something to look forward too. Also worth mentioning is that wade got a lot more workout than me due to a missing of the trail. Looking at the video he was recording at the time and seeing the tracks im not surprised, as he is not the first one to do so. Anyway, wade sent me a map of where he thinks he went [red] and where the trail was [blue] It doesn't look too bad except that between those colors is about 200 feet of evelation and a river. Also some boulders down lower. All in all it was 60 extra minutes of superbowl prep that wade got and I didn't. Moral of the story. Bring the dang radios next time [me].
Again. Video coming soon. My computer at home died and all i have is a MBP to complete it. I don't know how you people even try to edit on those things...
