Dead Dog

A morbid title to a post indeed, but I think I know where this particular ski route got its namesake. Anyways, Thanks to the boulder valley school district's scheduling, and some nice standardized testing crap, I didn't have to go to school wednesday, talked to dad earlier in the week about going up and skiing somewhere, 10:30 teusday night, "hey dad, you still want to go skiing tomorrow?" "Sure." Thats basically about as much planning as we did.



Rolled out of the driveway at a leisurely 7:45 and headed in the general direction of grays and torreys. We parked in bakerville, slogged the 4 miles up to the trailhead, another 3 or so up into the gulch with incredibly cloudless blue skies and warm temperatures. We made good time, reaching the upper basin at about 12:15 with easy going on firm snow. We had kind of sort of planned on maybe climbing the NE ridge of torreys, similar to a year or so ago, but after a short examination, a bit of hemming and hawing, and some lingering gazes, we opted for dead dog couloir.





It is a sweet line to look at, I think you'll agree. But climbing it was really a bear. it took almost three hours to gain 1200 vertical, boot packing through knee deep wet concrete. And since it was only my dad and I, even trading leaders every hundred or so steps wasn't enough to make it easy. Not too bad for my first substantial snow climb, considering we didnt have ropes, crampons, ice-axes or anything. (plus theseplaces make it sound like you are going to climb frickin Nagna Parbat or something. ) There wasn't any point in time where I was scared by the actual technical aspect of the snow climbing.







Made it to the top, jaunted up to the summit, ate some food and began to make our way back down.
For any one interested, my Dad wrote up a bit on the snow conditions, I would write it, but I dont know that much about it, and his thoughts sound much smarter than mine. For those of you not interested in that sort of thing, you may scroll down a few paragraphs. To tell you the truth, I was a bit nervous about the snowpack, but everything held well enough, and we made it home in one piece. Without further ado:



"The stability was marginal. Recent strong winds had really cross-loaded the gullies and the east face. The skiers' right side had thick, stiff wind slab and the skiers' left side was blown clear. We were able to pretty much -- expect for one short section -- to kick steps (and ski down) right at the edge of the slab. Here the slab was much more of a crust being just an inch or three thick with boot-top deep soft snow below. Climbing up, if we went too far to the skiers' left side we wallowed in thigh deep facets/depth hoar. We really tried not to venture to far to the skiers' right as the slab turned thick very quickly. The shears were easy and fast, but there was no propensity for fractures to propagate. Basically, we walked/skied a pretty fine line but felt comfortable about doing so.

The best skiing was actually on the Steven's Gulch road, well below treeline. In the couloir we side slipped the top couple of hundred feet, so we were always facing our escape route. Once we got down a bit we actually made turns but they were not graceful. A friend of mine calls it "HHJJLL" snow, which means "hopping and hoping, jumping and jiving, and leaping and landing." It was a very nervous ski because of the breakable crust. The entire ski back down to treeline was entertaining at best but it sure beat walking. Lots of breakable crust or bulletproof boilerplate polished by the winds. If the breakable crust was not enough tugging at your edges the widespread but dense willows provided extra grab, of ski edges and ankles.

It would be great to have a couple of big storms come along before venturing there again. The winds have made the area look and ski much more like late November/early December."



Yes, I agree. Also, there was an old slide that ran down the gully, a little while ago, with debris still visible and feelable at the bottom. This lended a bit more to our confidence in the safety of the slope.
Skiing sure beats any other way down, And thanks to our leisurely schedule, we enjoyed a nice afternoon ski out in the shadows, with spectacular colors on all sides.



I am quite wrecked from it, but stoked to go back out and make turns. Skiing isnt over yet.

Random Tangent Time: Just got my new TSKJ in the mail today. I usually try my best to do a charlie bucket impersonation, reading only an article a night, savoring everything. Silly? yes, absolutely, but it says something when I read the entire magazine cover to cover this afternoon. Yes, it is a photo issue, but still. the whole thing. done. I am still astounded by the quality of their work, and the photography in this issue is mind blowing. Inspiration right there folks. Incredible.