Sawtooth Chute School 4/30 – 5/3/09

Our last spring ski mountaineering course of the season drew a packed house.  Sawtooth Mountain Guides co-owner and IFMGA guide Erik Leidecker along with SMG guides Mike Hatch and Zach Crist lead a group of 10 guests for 4 days into the heart of the Sawtooths for some fantastic skiing and skills development.  We had people show up from all over the country – New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, and California- along with a handful of locals from Sun Valley.  The diverse group of clients with varying backgrounds and abilities created a great learning environment and helped forge new friendships.

Climbing up Big Fatty

Todd rippin Big Fatty

Spring time in the Sawtooths can be a mixed bag of snow conditions and we definitely got a sack full of corn, crust, and powder.  This required us to use at one time or another all that gear we were cursing having to lug around on our backs – ice axe, ski crampons, boot crampons, harness, rope, etc.  The snow pack in the alpine is holding up well with the chutes and couloirs nicely filled in.  Conditions in the alpine during the course were rather winter-like on northerly aspects with 6-8″ new in the chutes and coulees and spring -like on southerly aspects with  light freezes Friday and Saturday nights contributing to mid-afternoon corn cycles.

Snow School 101

March of the ski bums

Even though the weather was less than ideal the group still managed to knock off a laundry list of ski objectives and skill sets.  On Friday, after snow school and ice axe handling techniques, the group split with half climbing up and skiing Big Fatty and the other half climbing peak 10084, rappelling off the summit, and skiing Meadow Bowl.  The Big Fatty group found 6-8″ on a firm base and everybody skied strong and fluid.  On Saturday the clouds veiled the peaks, but even in low visibility the group still managed to ski several nice lines including the spire lined SW face of Williams Peak and after several rappels and a short climb the other half of the group dropped into “What’s Up Doc” – a narrow steep coulior off the shoulder of Thompson Peak.  On Sunday with 4-6″ new the group headed for the Profile drainage to ski classic lines like “Resurrection” and “Jesus” -  these were featured on the opening spread of the “Backcountry Magazine” article on the Chute School.  Erik lead one group who focused on rope handling and mountaineering skills like building anchors and proper belay and rappel techniques.  The lines flirted with us through the clouds and the new snow tantalized our taste buds.   The north-facing couloirs were holding good powder snow and the group had to manage the steep and tight terrain and sluff.  The whoops, hollers, and high fives at the bottom signaled the thrill of the runs and the culmination of days of technical skill development, inspiring turns, and great camaraderie at the Williams Peak Hut.  Thanks to all for spectacular course!!!

Cheers, Hatch, Erik, and Zach

Climbing up Big Fatty

Todd rippin Big Fatty

Big Fatty (aka. Fat Bastard)

Snow School 101

March of the ski bums

1084 Rappel

Brenden Rappelling

Rex “This ain’t Hunter Mtn.”

Erik and Zach

Let’s see how this axe works

Powder to the People

Rex lovin the carvy corn

The Boyz

Devin and Sean top of Resurrection

Hank and Tyler

Thompson Peak Couloirs

Brenden liking the squeeze

SW Face Williams Peak

Erik and his “Resurrection”

“What’s Up Doc”

Trip – always ready to go!

Ski Mountaineering Course 4/23-26

Sawtooth Alpine Ambience

After the success of last years ski mountaineering course and a feature in “Backcountry Magazine” we quickly filled up 2 courses for this spring. Our first Course was full with nine participants from the Sun Valley area and Boise. The diverse group had everything from ex-dead heads, a physical trainer, tech engineers and a coulpe high schoolers who could hold their own. However, they all shared the common passion for skiing/snowboarding and the goal to learn more about steep skiing and mountaineering. This diverse crew of backountry skiers and riders was joined by SMG course leader Kirk Bachman, ski mountain guide Michael Hatch, and SMG’s finest Chute Snowboard Patroller, Clark Corey.

The weather looked grim from the start with warm temps in the forecast. Fortunately the forecast was off and instead we received 5” new on the first night and a combination of cold nights and sunny days made for awesome alpine corn skiing. The group was feeling the ‘Stoke’ of the Sawtooth Alpine terrain which was accessed from the Williams Peak hut.

After a training with the uses of the ice axe which we carried as one of our main tools for safe alpine travel, we explored the reaches of the alpine terrain. Here is a short video of the ’snow school’ clinic (good form by the way!):

So here’s a few fotos from Kirk’s camera along with Clark’s. Send us yours and we’ll post!

After graduating from snow school…

Climbing techniques put to use

The 17 year old making us feel old

Erik makin’ the move

Entering the alpine

Rob approaching the Saddle of Thompson

Erik up the Steeps!

On the Way to the Summit

First Crew Ski Descent–Carter Peak

A successful day

Topping out on another classic in Profile Basin

Lynette taking in a bit of Bliss

Got Snow? All good things come to an end…

On the Way to the Summit

-Kirk, Clark & Hatch

SMG in Labrador

I just got back from a exploratory ski/snowboard trip to Labrador, Canada. Drew Pogge from Backcountry Magazine, who wrote the article on last years ski mt. course, invited me to join him to explore the Labrador coast!

Labrador is in North East Canada (up by Baffin Island) and the Northern region is completely unpopulated. Most of the providence is a windswept landscape that is flat and barren, with part of it being above the arctic treeline. This is a beautiful untouched wild area of North America, mostly with no skiing terrain.   However, the geography on the Northern coast is very rugged and mountainous, and thats where we were headed. Fjords from the Atlantic cut deep fingers into glaciated mountains, giving them a dramatic steep appearance, which is obviously why we went! This range is called the Torngat Mountains and is a newly established National Park and Preserve with no roads or park headquarters in the mountains and for hundreds of miles!

Flight into the mountains

The beauty…all 2800 feet.

Drew with blue ice (bulge and fjord)

Drew skiing

Skiing a large couloir

Takin er right down to the water

Torngat Mountains….

More great skiing

We got to spend time at an Inuit rendezvous, ski from 5,000ft mountains to sea level, climb and ski/snowboard couloirs with blue ice bulges down to the frozen ocean, ski beautiful aesthetic ridges above fjords and polar bears, and make turns off the shoulder of the highest peak in the range. The article will be out next winter….keep an eye out.  Special thanks to Drew, Dugald from Cruise North, Angus and Gary from the Parks, the native Inuit (who’s camp we stayed at),  Silla from Kuujjuak, Christof the Vermonter, Torngat Mt. National Park and Pierre from Nunavik Parks.

-Clark

March Madness

Decker and the “Black Dog” Face

Clark and N. Face of Decker

B-town Powder Patrol-Banner

Brad layin’ it down

Finger of Fate

Kirk likes his coffee

Megawatts and mega wolf tracks

Mystery Tour

Zack Crist reveling in the Mystery

Like the hat says

Sawtooth Panorama looking south

Mystery

March was a snowy month in the Sawtooths.  For the month, the mountains picked up 6-8 ft. of snow – almost doubling our snow pack!  This made for some incredible powder skiing in the backcountry and helped fill in the coolies and chutes in the alpine.  All the snow tempered our alpine ambitions, but will make for some great April and May spring skiing and glorious descents.  This is getting us excited for our spring ski mountaineering courses in April. We are on the northwest flow powder train right now and we’ll enjoy the ride as long as it lasts.  The Sawtooth Mountain Guides “Chute Patrol” did manage to ski/board the north face of Decker Peak ( 10,701), which will now be known as the “Black Dog Face”, for reasons my dog Gus, Clark and I would like to soon forget.  Just heed these words of advice – keep your four-legged friends in the deep, not the steep.

Also in March, my brother Brad Hatch and several of his B-town Boyz made a weekly pilgrimage to enjoy the Sawtooth goods.  They managed to luck out – powder, powder, and more pow!  Cheers to the Greenwood’s crew for motivating many early mornings to make the drive and suffer through numerous face shots!

In March, the SMG crew along with Zach Crist, took a nice circumnavigational tour around Mystery Peak.  The snow pack was a little touchy, so we stayed to lower angled terrain, but the views were awesome.  We scoped out numerous lines and hopefully we’ll scratch some off the list in April.  Zach loved the tour and is thinking about giving up steep skiing for gentle tours through the woods.

In the middle of March I had the pleasure to guide Jay Stevenor and his fun group up at the Williams Peak Hut.  We found some nice snow over in Marshall Basin.  Tad Jones, a fellow knee-dropper, put together a nice slideshow and video of their trip.  You can check it out here at :  http://www.jjds.net/outdoor/w_peak/index.html

Snow Report

We got hammered with snow last week so Hatch and I headed up to the yurt to shovel and resupply.  Snowstake at the yurt was at 195cm (6.5 feet!).  Shoveling took forever and soon it was 8:00pm and we were exhausted.  Better rest up for some powder skiing…

Before…

…after

The yurts

Hatch droppin the knee

Bootin’ for a livin’

Terrain for ski mt. camp

She’s a beauty ain’t she Clark?

Old avalanche from the last storm – be careful!

We toured into Marshal Basin and found excellent skiing.  A pit revealed storm snow from past 2.5 weeks has settled to 4 feet of new!  The classic Sawtooth lines are filling in quite nice, which is getting us psyched for the ski mountaineering camp in April.  The rest of our day consisted of breaking lots of trail, booting up knee and thigh deep powder and excellent skiing conditions.  Tough job but somebodies got to do it.

-Clark

Meeker & United Pipe– February 24-27

Dan Meeker brought a veteran group of United Pipe backcountry enthusiasts for another Williams Peak rendezvous to join us for some epic powder skiing during a classic Sawtooth Powder Storm . The crew came in from Bozeman, MT, Portland, Oregon, Victor, ID , and Boise to a ‘Big Snow’ at the yurt. Meeker, Brent, Doug, & Mike drove around after making friends with the folks on Highway 21 to join us via headlamp.

Brent Skiing In

Last Season Chute Patrolin

Last year’s theme was steep couloirs, this year’s skiing with snorkels. The crew joined Kirk, Hatch, and Clark to find face shots and cold smoke . Dan made sure there continued to be a nocturnal ski theme through the rendezvous.

More Night Riding

Doug in the Cold Smoke

Brigham Smokin' It

Dan Settlin' into the Line

Mike looking for ski tips!

The Tail Gunners

TJ Knuckle Draggin' the Ridge Out

Check out the face shots and ambiance!

Glad to be there with you,

Kirk

Chute Patrol Stikes Again

With weakening surfaces and strong storms approaching, Hatch and I decided to get out into the alpine before stability took a turn for the worse.  And yes, all you level 1 students, we know that scarcity is a human factor…but we did feel good about stability that day.

Elephants Perch in background

Getting closer...

We decided to explore an area that neither one of us had done any skiing in, a spot that we had seen from Heyburn last year.  A scenic 4 mile tour led us to our basin and there was the entrance to the cooler…but we still couldn’t see the top.  The granite walls guarding both sides were plastered with a thin coating of snow, giving the exit a dramatic appearance.  We skinned through the alpine bowl and then skiis/board went onto our back, ice axes came out and up we marched…sawtooth style…climbing our line.  Skiing lines in the Sawtooths is all about ski mountaineering, there is no easy skin up the backside of your run.  Often times climbing a 50 degree chute is the only, and easiest, way to get to the top!

Hatch with the Sawtooth view

Finding some good snow

After a little bit of winding through rock islands, and wondering where the hell this chute leads to, we topped out and turned around to another beautiful sawtooth panorama.  We decided to drop in, as the weather was moving in.  The thin 48-50 degree top hundred feet kept us on edge, until it opened up to a nice 40 degree wide section.  We leap frogged the length of the couloir finding pockets of good snow at times and also variable funky pockets.  As we descended the couloir, the massive granite walls became bigger and bigger until we exited into the wind swept alpine bowl, back into the trees with soft snow and finally into the canyon bottom.

Love that toe edge!

Hatch looks small

As we left this great area the wind began picking up and the temps started rising, typical patterns of a SW flow.  Both Hatch and I savored the day knowing that with the storm rolling in, and sampling the surfaces, it may be a little while before we are able to venture into the alpine again.

Level 2 Tour Leadership & Avalanche Hazard

February 12-15, 09

Instructors Steve Conger, from Golden, British Columbia and SMG Winter Director, Kirk Bachman were joined by Zach Crist, Rob Landis, Sigi Vogl,Will Smith, and Joe Tobias for the Sawtooth Level 2 Avalanche Course. The 4-day program is geared toward experienced backcountry skiers and snowboarders who have years of field time and a current Level 1. This group brought the requisite years of BC skiing experience as well as bonus related outdoor experience, ranging from Forest Service avy forecasting (Will), Big Mountain Skiing Athletics (Zach), years of mountain guiding (Sigi), Outdoor program directing (Rob) and serious backcountry skiing (Joe) who also assists @ SMG.

Class in the Snowpit

Field Notebook w/ buried Surface hoar

The 4 days included field work in multiple complex rescue scenarios, snowpack study with an emphasis in performing standardized tests and snowpack analysis. With tours on both Galena Pass and @ Copper Mountain our group found remarkably different structure, strength, and energy (stability wheel snowpack analysis) in the two local snow zones to bring the topic of snow climates into focus with the Continental and Intermountain snowpacks 40 miles apart. Tours focused on pre-trip weather and avalanche forecasting on a daily basis with lots of opportunities to manage the tour group in challenging avalanche terrain.

Copper Summit

Turns off Copper

Evening sessions explored how human behavior can create decision-making traps for tour leadership, also: more in-depth science discussions in snowpack processes in the formation of weak layer development; the role of spatial variability on slopes in the initiation and propagation of slab avalanches; & the mechanics of fracture.

Shovel Tilt Test

Cracking Slab Friday 13th

Lots of time was spent mastering observations in the field and recording data at the ‘SWAG’ standard and using the field notebook. Fortunately, our field time dropped us into some great terrain for skiing, so some fun-times were mixed in with the education. During the course, light snow and facets made for great skiing, and are now the buried weak layer for another avalanche cycle in the wings a week later.

Human-Goat Factor in Decision-making

AM Wx & Fx Tour Plan with Will

We received great feedback from the participants on the intensive learning style with a compliment of formal science and practical management of groups and decision-making while in avalanche terrain. Kirk and Steve have teamed up to teach this course for ten years. Thanks for coming down from Canada, Steve to join us in the awesome sawtooth terrain, EH!

Thanks for sending us some fotos Zach!

Wisegoat and Zach

McGee Custom @ Williams Peak

Recently enjoyed a great adventure of 5 days of skiing with Dennis McGee and Friends. SMG guides Michael Hatch and Kirk Bachman joined Dennis, Darby, Ed, Jayce, Po along with support from Clark who hauled the provisions for the first 3 days. We got the compass out to find the shaded slopes where the powder stashes were…otherwise it was beautiful Springlike weather for touring.

Fishhook Ridge View

huntin’ for a fall-line…rip it!

Who said AT was the way to go?!

Thompson Summit

rock ski touring

old home week

Kirk’s 1st summit

Check out my upper left ear

Thunder Chicken

The crew soon realized the extent of our varied weather of the winter 2008-09 to find old avalanche crowns from the New Year storms and wind hammered snow in the high alpine. Turns ranged fron wind packed and edgy, transitioning thru breakable and “step-turns” to where there were some hidden rollers with powder between upper and lower Marshall Lake. The crew handled the terrain well, linking fall-lines with route-finding to connect the stashes.

We ended each day back at the yurt with appetizers and the required accompanied refreshments followed by dinner, cards, and conversation. Whose Ipod was it anyway providing the beat?!

Wednesday brought in ‘Kirk the doc’ and ‘Jeff the bush pilot’ along with ‘Joe the BC Skier’ with a second sled and Clark ‘coolio’ for the day. Soon there was a Mexican Fiesta and the required Margaritas…Ole ! and plans to tour to the Goat Creek basin and summit Thompson Peak!

Thursday brought out a long adventurous day with every kind of ski condition over 3,500ft–wind buff on edges, snow climbing and some awesome powder stashes on the way down. Farewell to Po and Darby, hello to a day in the alpine!!

An evening game of ‘Oh Hell’ followed by some excellent gourmet cookin’ from Hatch and Joe brought on the night and the some light snow overnight. With the standard early wake-up to alpine al’s cowboy coffee and huevos and bacon…we’re off for a final climb to ski from Jerry Garcia @ 9,000ft and the Tortilla Steeps for some powder stash huntin’. The remaining crew each slayed a great run of steep re-cycled powder. Followed up with a light lunch before heading out down the Fishhook ridge and down thru the bobsled run to the valley.

Great trip with the Dennis’ Boise gang of 7, Joe , KB, Hatch….Let’s do it again in a powder storm!

-Kirk

AIARE Avalanche Level 1

This year SMG teamed up with AIARE to incorporate material into our curriculum.  Last year Kirk and Hatch went to Colorado to attend an ITC (instructor training course) and ever since Kirk has been in contact with AIARE on getting set up with them.  This December I took the ITC here in Stanley ran by Ben Pritchet and Brian Lazar, both from AIARE down in Colorado.

Beacon range check

Breakfast at the coffee shop

Charlie presenting a pit profile

Copper Mountain

Hatch and company drawing snowpack layering

Kirk and his group…after a day in the field at Galena Pass

Lecture on Slab Mechanics

Will doing a quick pit – looking at structure and doing a compression test

Last weekend we had our first AIARE level 1 course here in Stanley.  It involved combining our material with a new format and info.  We also had a new venue, which turned our really well.  The course was held at the Trillium Coffee house in ‘downtown’ Stanley which gave the course the authentic, rustic Stanley feel.  Jamie (owner) and Sean provided a great breakfast and coffee every morning.

Lectures and morning meetings were held in Stanley, and after drinking plenty of coffee, we did our field sessions at Galena Pass and Banner Summit.  At Galena we did our snowpit studies which included hand hardness, profiles, stability tests and general observations.  At Banner summit we did our tour day which introduced terrain management while incorporating just about everything else we had covered into a practical field setting.

Everyone enjoyed the course and we were psyched to have a new spin on courses based out of town.  We even got one of our classic Stanley inversions which was -30 on the last morning so everyone got a full taste of Sawtooth Valley living!  This was our last Level 1 but next year the format will be the same.