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

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.

Navy Seals Custom Guided Hut Trip

Over a span of 5 days in mid-January a team of Navy Seals got to hone their backcountry ski skills in the diverse terrain of the Sawtooths surrounding the Williams Peak Hut.  SMG guides Mike Hatch and Clark Corey along with special guest Zach Crist had the pleasure of guiding the team to Skiers Summit, Marshall Basin, and Thompson Peak areas.

Dennis above the waterfall

The guys loved the challenge and we toured high and low in search of powder stashes and even had almost corn-like conditions on some southerly exposures.  Several of the team members were new to the backcountry skiing scene, but these guys picked it up quick and were soon skiing stuff even seasoned skiers would find difficult.  It was a pleasure to get to know these guys and we look forward to more training trips in the future.

The Gang: Zach, AJ, Dan, Hatch, Dennis, and Mike

AJ gettin'-the-goods

January Avalanche Courses

Its been a busy month so far…with guiding and avalanche education. Here’s a quick update on our courses:

Kirk and I started off with an Avalanche Level 1 Refresher (ASAW) here at SMG Headquarters and did our field sessions out at Banner Summit.  This is a 1.5 day course revisting concepts and skill sets learned in a Level 1 course.  Kirk covered some of the core topics regarding snowpack, weather, terrain and we got to do a rescue scenario and tour out at Copper with great snow conditions.

The past 2 weekends (1/9-1/11 & 1/16-1/18 ) we (Kirk, Hatch and I) have been up at the hut teaching our popular Avalanche Level 1 courses.  Every year these fill right up because of the easy access to all the avalanche terrain (classroom) right out the backdoor and all the hands on experience.  People traveled from New York, Pennsylvania, California, Montana, Colorado, Oregon and various parts of Idaho to come hang out at the yurt and learn about avalanches and decision making.  We made sure their trip was worth it and talked avalanche from sun up to sun down (and sometimes much before and after).  The field sessions went well too ranging from rescue scenarios, digging snow pits and practicing stability tests, and the last day touring and managing terrain.  Everyone left feeling like they had learned a ton, had a great yurt experience and got some good turns.  Thanks for coming.

Ray Gadd, who is a Boise based photographer, did a blog post on the Jan 16-18 course he took.  He has some awesome pictures…check out his post here.

Here’s a select few pictures from the past couple weekends, if you guys have any feel free to email them and I’ll post.  (thanks Cara or sending some of yours) Click to enlarge:

Will and Tiago preforming a ‘board block’ – variation of the ruschblock

Tour planning

Discussion on Snowpack structure

Can you identify this form?

Weather obs on skiers summit – pretty sunny and calm.

The east coaster de-skinning

Cookin’ up a storm

Higher hut learning

Kirk giving another fine lecture

Ladies enjoying their Sawtooth classroom

Ridge running to the hut

Hatch and Cara in the pit

-Clark

Schuler/Krohn Guided Hut Trip

For 5 days Linda and Jennifer immersed themselves in the beauty and splendor of the Sawtooths.  They brought their happy-go-lucky midwestern attitudes and had a great time exploring the area around the Williams Peak Hut and refining their backcountry ski skills.  The first days tour found us skiing knee deep super fluff and whoops and hollers were the order of the day.  The next several days were stormy, but we got out on some nice tours into Marshall Basin.  Here we found untracked powder,  gorgeous views, and great companionship. The ladies liked the yurt lifestyle and said they would definitely be back – and with fatter skis!  Thanks for a great trip ladies.

Linda and Jen

Linda linking turns above the hut

Williams Peak Hut

Great day in the Sawtooths!

Singer/Kapp Family Climbing

Here are some photos from two days on the Super Slabs with the Kapp/Singer family and their guests.

 

 

 

South Face of Kent Peak

On June 6th SMG guide Marc Hanselman and I skied the South Face of Kent Peak. We approached via the East Fork of the North Fork of the Big Wood River and followed a tongue of avalanche debris at 8100 feet into a high basin to the west of the drainage that comes off the south face. Conditions were firm (crampons) up to 10,800′ at which point they became more breakable. The south face itself was mostly breakable crust, and due to the generally cold and unstable weather the mountains haven’t seen much of a corn cycle. Despite the funky ski conditions there was plenty of sunshine and all in all it was a great day in the mountains.