Ruby Mtns - TR
Andrew McLean
there last weekend and had a great time.
Friday - 4 hour drive from SLC to Elko. Mark lost $20 at the Comstock,
after being up $60 at one point. Marshal Tucker band was playing for one
night only.
Saturday, April 3rd
After being woken up at 2:30am by some drunk snowboarders who needed a
shovel to extract their truck, we were again woken up by them at 6:00am.
This time they weren't so feisty, having spent the night outside in their
Teva's trying to stuff twigs under their Suburban's tires and only
succeeding in sinking it even deeper into the snow. "Do you guys have a
cell phone?" No, but give us a minute and we'll try and tow you. Once they
were freed, it turned out they knew all about the chute we had driven out
there for - "Oh yeah! Terminal Cancer! Are you going to ski it?"
We'd heard tales of this line from a two people at work, both of whom
described it as "over 2,000' of 50 degrees and *maybe* a ski width wide."
As promised, it was highly obvious from the road -- a perfect splitter right
down the center of a massive rock buttress. After an exciting creek
crossing, we skinned up the initial apron, then traversed over into the
barrel of the chute. It was wild! The whole thing was lined with 20-60'
vertical rock walls on either side and was perfectly straight. The skinning
started out as a "B" -- not too bad, maybe boot-top deep. Once we entered
the chute, we started booting, which was pretty good to begin with, then
slowly got deeper (B-), then deeper (C-), then deeper yet (D- waist deep)
then before we knew it we broke out the shovels and started trenching (a
definite "F" on uphill travel). A few feet of this might have been bad, but
1,000' vertical was so bad that it was good. In the previous week, the
Rubies had had snow almost every day. All of the snow that had fallen on
the open faces surrounding the chute we were in had sloughed off and further
filled in our chute, to the point that we were literally digging in snow
that was seven feet deep. Mark favored the technique of sticking his head
in the wall in front of him and trying to shovel the snow over his back. I
preferred the "imploding ruesh block" technique of cutting the sides, then
under cutting a block and letting it fall down onto me, then crawling up on
top of it. This went on for about two hours amid many groans of disbelief
and lots of photos.
We eventually made it to the top and were joined a few minutes later by
Kristen and Brad. The first five turns uncovered nasty rocks, but the next
series were absolutely unforgettable. Not only was the snow waist to chest
deep, but as you cut back across the hill in between turns, the slough from
your previous turn would pour over your shoulders from behind. In firm snow
conditions, the chute might have required quick little hop turns, but this
day, there was so much snow that we were literally floating down in slow
motion through a sea of 5% dust. It was unreal.
(The chute, called "Terminal Cancer" by some Elko locals turned out to be 42
degrees, 30-40' wide and 1,980' tall.)
We made it back to the car, pulled another stuck Suburban out of the ditch,
then hitched a ride behind a mad Spaniard on a 700cc Yamaha all the way up
Lamoille Canyon. After skinning up to Liberty Pass, we had another slow
motion ride back down to the road and began the veeeeerrrry slow four mile
walk/pole/shuffle slog back to the car.
For dinner, we drove back into Elko stopped at the Star Hotel for Basque
food and Nevada style drinks, then did a quick trip to the Laundromat to dry
our clothes off.
Sunday - April 4th
After an uneventful night car camping, we set out up the Thomas Fork
drainage. After about an hour of solitary skinning, we were almost lulled
into thinking that this area was off limits to snowmobiling. Wrong. Just
like the Calvary leading the charge, a lone 700cc punched a trail up the
drainage and was immediately followed by 6-7 other high-pointing fanatics.
By the time we made it up into the head of the drainage, then entire basin
had been tracked out. Oh well, the skiing was still good.
Overall, the Rubies were a blast. As people mentioned, access is a
"problem" which means you are competing with helicopters and 'biles for
first tracks, which is hardly a competition. I don't know if they do it,
but if/when I go back, I'd check into renting a 'bile (or paying someone to
shuttle you) so you could get up to the Wildness Boundary. We also checked
into getting a helicopter drop. Ruby Mtn Heli Guides said they couldn't do
it, and the other Heli Service said they could do it for about $500, but you
couldn't bring you skis!!!
Andrew
Mel Mann
Thanks for a great TR! Sounds like some pretty wild stuff. I am
interested in your avalanche evaluation of the chute you skied. You were
way outside my tolerances and yet sounds like things turned out great.
What made you think it was stable enough to climb? What would have made
you think it wasn't?
Keep 'em coming,
Mel
Andrew McLean wrote:
>
<snip> All of the snow that had fallen on
> the open faces surrounding the chute we were in had sloughed off and further
> filled in our chute, to the point that we were literally digging in snow
> that was seven feet deep. ... Not only was the snow waist to chest
Andrew McLean
>Thanks for a great TR! Sounds like some pretty wild stuff. I am
>interested in your avalanche evaluation of the chute you skied. You were
>way outside my tolerances and yet sounds like things turned out great.
>What made you think it was stable enough to climb? What would have made
>you think it wasn't?
There were a few things that I didn't mention....
- The snowmobilers had cut some very high tracks on open bowls with no signs
of sloughing and/or fractures.
- There were no signs of natural avalanches
- The angle of the chute made the apparent snowpack depth much deeper than
it really was - if you take two feet of new snow and tip it at 45 degrees
then try to climb up it, it will appear that you are in 4-6' of snow.
- I always looks for two major avalanche indicators - a slab and a sliding
surface. In this case there was a lot of snow, but it was just a big puffy
ball of air, not a cohesive slab. And, there wasn't anything for it to
slide on as the new snow fell on top of good, grippy old snow.
- And, last but not least, I have a personal theory that chutes tend to
have much lower "volume" as well as having sides that they can grip snow
with. I'd definitely have second/third thoughts about skiing a big open
bowl in those conditions.
Andrew
ChrisD454
>ball of air, not a cohesive slab. And, there wasn't anything for it to
>slide on as the new snow fell on top of good, grippy old snow.
>- And, last but not least, I have a personal theory that chutes tend to
>have much lower "volume" as well as having sides that they can grip snow
>with. I'd definitely have second/third thoughts about skiing a big open
>bowl in those conditions.
Drooool Droool. Stop it you are getting me excited! Sounds like you hit a
great run in darn near perfect conditions.
Chris Dominguez