Mazama Bowl Snow Pit

Well here it is...a snow pit featuring the infamous 'MLK crust'. As of January 19th, the crust has yet to freeze solid, and with the recent and forecasted warm temperatures, it's unlikely to do so any time soon.

Stability tests performed on Sunday, Jan. 25:
Alta Vista, Aspect 90o; Slope 30o; evel 5800'.


ETCX
CTH(22) @ 30cm Q3
STM @ 10cm Q3


Also, there were 4 to 5 loose snow slides (sluffs off the south face of Panorama Point. These point-releases resulted from the intense sun melting and weakening the top layer of snow and occurred on  Saturday, Jan. 22 around 'high noon'.


Tuesday and Wednesday (1/25 and 1/26) should be mostly sunny and warm, so come on up to Paradise and enjoy some spring skiing in January!

Wacky Weather!

We all thought La Nina was going to give us a cold and wet winter with lots of snow and great skiing.  Well, there have been some good days of skiing at Paradise, of course, in the last month, but there's been a lot of wild weather.

We're currently on the tail end of a 7" rain storm at Paradise.  It was raining at times, clear up to 9000 feet.  Fortunately, no major flooding damaged any roads (so far).  We're planning on opening the road to Paradise today, after keeping it closed yesterday, due to avalanches (both snow, rock, and mud), flood, and rockfall potential.

Ranger Drew Bryenton dug a pit last week.  Look for more full profiles from Drew.  We'll post them here as well as on the NWAC website.  Here's the January 11th, full profile / before all this rain.

Currently, the rain has switched to snow.  It's sticking to the old rain surface pretty well.  The new snow density is about 40%...  Not good skiing, but good for stability.

There are some scheduled climbs this week.  I hope to hear back from them so stay tuned.

~ 2 hours later:  Just got back in from digging around for avalanche stability along the road to Paradise:

Date/Time: 1/17/2011 ~ 10:00am

Elevation: 5250

Slope: 49deg

Aspect: 170degT

Weather: Snowing

Temp: 32F

Lat: 46.781244

Long: -121.743672

Results:

SST (Shovel Shear) - STE @ 35cm Q3 (Weaker waterlogged snow just collapsed).

CT (Compression Test) - CTE(5) @ 35cm Q3 (Weak snow collapsing)

ECT (Extended Collumn Test) - ECTX (No propogation across collumn / shovel only plowing down)

RB (Rutschblock Test) - RB3 @ 35cm Q3 MB (Weaker snow collapse / no shear surface).

Independent Public Help With Rescue From The Tatoosh!

Kudos to visitors who help during carry-outs!

On November 21st, an experienced 49 year old male was skiing in the Sunbeam Creek drainage off the Steven's Canyon Road.  This leads up into the Tatoosh Range between The Castle and Foss Peak.  At about 1:00 pm he was skiing a shallow chute a few hundred feet below the ridge crest.

As he skied down he hit a rock and   his skis suddenly stopped.  He crashed and was not able to get back up.  He and other party members on scene quickly determined it was likely a classic boot-top fracture.  They splinted the injury, stabilized him, and they went for help.

At about 3:30 in the afternoon, the National Park Service was notified and rangers took the reporting party back to where they had exited on the road.  A hasty team was sent back up their ski tracks to locate the patient.

Here's where we give respect.

There were only a few rangers on that day in the immediate area, and only 2 were initially available to help with the carry out.  Four independent members of the public who were also skiing that drainage that day volunteered to help.

Special thanks to:

Marty Gunderson of Woodinville, WA
Oliver Evans of Seattle, WA
Peter Moore of Seattle, WA
Simon Windell of Seattle, WA

These four were given a litter, technical gear, and EMS supplies to pack back up the hill for about 45 minutes.  Without their help, it would've taken us a lot longer to get to the patient, stabilize, and transport.

The patient was sledded out in a carbon fiber ski patrol litter called an akja, supplied by Cascade Toboggan.  The four volunteers plus available rangers helped pull the litter through the flats for a quick load onto our ambulance and transport to the hospital.  We didn't get out to the road until well after dark.

Injuries aside, this rescue went very smoothly, largely due to the help of independent public recreationists who were able and willing to lend a hand.

Thanks, guys!