1/29/13

Surface Demo Fleet


Beartooth Powder Guides' quiver of Surface skis for friends and clients.


Lot's of appreciation!  Please support Surface and grassroots ski culture.



1/28/13

Skied up on a Cougar today!



(photo by Joe or Mary Ann McDonnald)


No kidding.  Skied right up on a Puma today.  Maybe a once in a lifetime experience.
At about 9,000'.  Very atypical for a cat this size to be cruising around amidst a 6 foot snowpack.  I'd hypothesize that powder skiing with a mountain lion is directly correlated to the wolf pack we've seen around Cooke City the last couple weeks.


1/27/13


Backdoor line.  5pm.

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"  -K. Vonnegut

1/25/13


"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand."  -Kurt Vonnegut


1/24/13


In case you are curious:  we snapped a nine day sunny spell with 6-8" this morning.  There's been wolves on a carcass down near Warm Springs (heard them howling while we were skiing).  They're thinking about shutting down the Post Office.   The school kids went on an animal-tracking field trip with the Good Doctor.  I had a crampon fall off half way up an ice climb (2nd ing).   And there were two moose on Broadway yesterday...   So it goes.

1/19/13

The moon is not going anywhere.




Got about four miles north of town this morning, before the snowmachine decided to spew out all its antifreeze.. (so back to town we went)

Still skied a new route though.


1/18/13

field testing...


Stoked to have spent the last couple days working with the gear gurus of Patagonia.
(mad scientists)


It's pretty cool to hear "that was the best run of my life", from more than one..  
(music to a backcountry ski guide's ears ;)

1/17/13

tracking



With a thriving ecosystem and an abundance of wildlife, there is no shortage of animal tracking to be done around here.  I also find it quite entertaining to track fellow backcountry skiers and boarders. You know who skis with:  scales, skinny skins, fat boards, who skis with which dogs, where they ski, how they ski, who they are, which way they are skiing, what they are probably thinking...  (A perk of having a small ski community.)

1/14/13

To Whom it May Concern

Electric Pk. this morning


and lion tracks on the Woody Creek Trail.!
Photographed yesterday by Freedle Coty.
(I think this is the animal I mistook for a wolf ;)

Keep your eyes peeled!

1/10/13



 TODAY
Snow Chance for Measurable Precipitation 100%
Snow
High: 31 °F
TONIGHT
Snow Chance for Measurable Precipitation 100%
Snow
Low: 1 °F
FRIDAY
Snow Chance for Measurable Precipitation 100%
Snow
High: 8 °FFalling Temperatures










1/9/13

facet, surface hoar sandwich



ECTPV:  Fracture propagates across the entire column during isolation. (read:  hair trigger)
Today on a SE facing slope around 9000', just south of town.

However, I had a decent look around and did not see any natural avalanche activity...


Localized instabilities.  Procede with caution.

1/7/13

north Barronette


Snowfall has returned to the mountains around Cooke City. 
Six to eight thus far.  cold smoke consistency. On the heels of a week of high pressure.  

Below being some surface hoar I observed a day prior.  (7-9mm for scale). 
Which seemed to be confined to the valley bottoms..


1/4/13

Today in Yellowstone Park...



The conditions were exceptionally good.






We skied until the snow turned orange.


( benighted )

1/3/13

Diurnal Recrystallization


Diurnal recrystallization occurs in the mid-latitude mountains when cold, clear nights alternate with warm days (there's been an inversion around Cooke City lately).  While the temperature a foot below the snow surface remains relatively constant, snow surface temperatures change dramatically.  The surface becomes extremely cold at night and warms during the day.  The end result is the formation of near-surface faceted crystals.  (Birkeland, 1998).