Eight-day Birthday Trifecta

So good to me. For the finale, yesterday Eric and I skied this wicked couloir that connects to the North Face of Mt Shuksan:
NF->BYS Couloir

See below for references to the previous two episodes.

Seldom-Skied Summits

Our first real winter snowpack-stability window of the season arrived last week. It's time to ski summits, especially summits that may not be skiable most of the time. It's been an amazing week.

Ryan boots to the summit of Whitehorse yesterday. Conditions were perfect for alpine ripping, fast boottop packed powder. No complaints here. Note the Puget Sound in the bottom-right background.


Several photos of me skiing from the summit of Chikamin last Thursday by Pinegar. Edit/disclosure: I just rotated the first two to make 1-my ax leash vertical and 2-the clouds horizontal.

Use Radiation

Open soure: not just computers, RADIATION. Yes, I get to play with danger during the day job, too.


Better have another cup of coffee before touching that rat's nest.


Big thanks to Kate, the awesome lady who wrote the customs letter to help me ship my madness to Finland.

Next Month: a precision measurement with JYFLTRAP IGISOL. Then: La Grave: On y va!

Name that Gnar!

For our 100th post, let's play a game. Name that gnar. Who knows where to find this sickness?

Encore

These pictures were taken near the lowest, snow-crummiest pass in the lower 48 states. For some reason I can't stop going there. Neither getting stranded nor having close encounters with dangerous Snow Monsters stultify the stoke.

Snow Monsters follow after Snow Dragons attack the road.


This was taken last weekend, when we wandered through the forest because the Villagers were so scared of Snow Dragons that they called Flying Snow Monsters to drop firebombs on the mountains. We took refuge from the epic battle in steep snowy trees.


This is Sir AlpentalCorey, lazily floating through steep powder near his Magic Castle. He likes to hide there when the Snow Dragons are near, finding much excitement in the epic battles between steep and deep.


This is Charging, looking for unicorns.

Tuesday Dishins

Here's a shot that summarizes conditions at Alpental yesterday.


Get down, Mr. Brown

We attempted to leave at 2:30 pm to do some work, but the pass was closed for avalanche control. We were able to do two more top-to-bottoms for another 5k of powpow. There is something very lovely about an unexpected extra dose of deepness to end the day.