Day 1 Banner Summit/Copper Mountain

Sunday November 30th 2014

Its been a while since my last blog and I will try to make an effort to Blog on Backcountry Snowboarding/ Splitboarding in Idaho as the winter progresses. Plus some big trips coming the next couple of months.

My day began with a 430am alarm as I volunteered to take my mother-in-law to the airport so my wife could sleep in a bit and I could going touring for the day. After a 6am drop off at the Boise Airport I drove on over to my friend Jason's House for Coffee and meeting about our plan for the day.  We spent 30-45 minutes talking about our Route for the day, Avalanche Hazards, and our overall "Decision Making Framework". This was my first time skiing with Jason so I really wanted to make sure we where on the same page when it came to "Zones" we would completely avoid and our overall Plan.

Choosing a Backcountry partner is not always about going with someone who is a great skier but more about their disposition.   I have some of super talented snowboarding friends I would probably never ride in the Backcountry with simply because they are too quick to make hasty decisions.  I would rather turn down a risky line with moderate Avalanche conditions than become an incident report. I digress...

After coffee and several pee stops we reached Banner Summit around 1000am with temps in the single digits. Well Hello winter. I had to reach in my bag and put on ever layer I brought.  Once we started to move temps started to warm rapidly into the 20's.  The climb up the SW ridge is easy to navigate and straight forward especially when 5 or so people have already laid the skin track for you. Thank you Chris and Sara!

We took our time and skinned up to around 8500 feet just 500 feet shy of Copper Summit. The SW low angle bowl was pretty wind blow which helped make our decision easier and check out the N Trees.

We rode lower angle trees 25-35 degree pitches down to the drainage and out to the road.

The coverage for the first 1000 feet was excellent with 6-9 inches of newer snow that was a little creamy as the warmer temps where helping to firm up the once blower pow from the morning. Once we hit the 7500 foot level we could really feel the hard crust layer beneath and plenty of more hazards such as logs, low growing baby trees and stumps to keep you honest.

Overall a great first day in the Idaho Backcountry to kick off the season.

Disclaimer!!! I am not a Professional analysis or an Avalanche Forecaster . Just my general observations that I discovered on this day.

Snowpack take-away: I did dig several hand pits along the way, but really ran out of time to do a full pit profile. Around mid-elvations we found anywhere from 2-3 feet of snow. 6-9inches of newer snow (within 48 hours) was sitting a solid crust/ice layer. 1/2 inch thick or so. Below the crust was weaker snow that seamed to be a bit rounded and less faceted than I had suspected from the early snow from October. I sure hope its on its way to fixing itself. We are currently in a storm cycle this week so it will be interesting to see how all this new snow starts to set up. 

feels good to skin

Copper Mountain

2 Thumbs

Screen Grab

Williams Peak Hut Day 3

Day 3: Consisted of Route Planning through terrain and more snow observations. Another 30cm of new snow on top of an already very week layer kept us to low angle slopes. Just another day in Japan...at least thats what it felt like. Deep turns and a few face shots. Stoked to be on Pow again. 

Traveling from the hut to the trail head was interesting on a snowboard as there where lots of ups and down...but managed to make it with a little one foot action. Overall a great trip and can't wait to get back up to the Williams Peak Hut for another trip or Course.  

Hoping to take this Chute style course in Late April... http://sawtoothguides.com/winter-courses-instruction/ski-mountaineering-camp/  Anyone want to join? 

Overnight snow!

skin up

I'll take a turn...

Ok now you go..

Collin

Collin

Chris our guide

Photo bombed 

3 days later.

Williams Peak Yurt Day 2

Part 2 of 3

Day 2:  Hut life is good.

Our day consisted of real world companion rescue situations. We broke down to our tour groups and had to do a multi-burrial rescue on 2 different slopes.  Its pretty tough navigating down hill on a Splitboard with skins on in Heavy, wet, sloppy snow.  Our group gelled great and preformed well together in both recovery efforts.  After a debrief and a quick bite to eat, it was time for a short tour to have a real evaluation of our snowpack.  

Pretty alarming snowpack with all this new heavy wet snow on top of a super weak layer.  Basically an upside down snowpack situation creates very unstable conditions widespread throughout.  I could go into details but lets just say it was dangerous. We were able to do a couple of snow pack stability test to prove our assumptions. 

 Coming in Day 3.....Powder Turns and more weak snowpack.

Morning view with some fresh heavy wet snow

Tour

Ridges are safe

Poor Visibility 

Chris our Guide

Week Layer of Concern 

Compression test

Didn't take much

Rutschblock test

RB2- Big Slab release 

Night

Stanley/ Williams Peak Yurt Day 1

Its Been over ten years since I have taken a formal Avalanche course and it was ten too many. 

This is Part 1 of 3: 

Last week I took an AIARE Level 1 Avalanche course with Sawtooth Mountain Guides at their remote location in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. The Williams Peak Yurt is located about 5-6 miles outside of Stanley, ID at the Base of Williams Peak. It was a 3 day course with a great crew of individuals that all brought something different to offer. I can't thank our Guides Chris, Sara and Kirk enough for such an amazing course and learning environment. 

Before I get too deep into the course, let me back up to our day and night in Stanley. I had about a 3.5 plus hour drive from Mountain Home, ID to Stanley which was pretty boring until I approached Galena Summit and worked my way towards Smiley Creek and Stanley.  My buddy Collin and I spent a short night in Stanley at Jerry's Motel/ Country Store...great location right on the river.  We had a quick bite for dinner at the Mountain Village lodge and planned/ packed our gear for following day skin to Williams Peak Yurt with our class.  

The approach is a 5-6 mile skin(Hike) with about 2000ft in elevation gain.  Overall pretty mellow, but its still a 3-4 hour hike with a full load on your back.  Once at the hut we went over some companion rescue skills in the field before dinner followed by a nightly presentation.  Full day! 

Coming up in Part 2.....NEW Snow observations, Snow profiles, snowpits, a short tour and real world companion rescue situations. 

Coming down the north side of Galena Summit

Jerry's Motel View

Dinner

Our friend at dinner

Checking out the area.

Early morning from Jerry's

Skin to the Yurt

Day 1 at the Williams Peak Yurt

Night Class at the Yurt

AK457 Team Meeting

Went down to Niigata for a Burton Japan AK457 team meeting. Productive meeting and a great shred session with some new friends. Thanks again to Masa for the Cat Tour. He has quite the amazing playground right in his back yard. The terrain is endless and rip-able. For more info on his cat operation check out his Facebook page------> Hikarigahara-Cattours  Well worth the trip!

Splitboard Mission

Hakkoda has had a great start to the season, but sometimes it does have to stop snowing for a 24-48 hours in January. In this case, its time to break out the Splitboard and go earn some turns on a Mountain in the Hakkoda's nobody ventures to trek in high winter season. 1.5 hours of driving each way, 2 hours of hiking and ten minutes of snowboarding. Each turn is worth it, no crowds, no people. Just nature, snow bunnies (actual white rabbits) and of course fresh lines top to bottom.

Hakkoda Diaries Episode Nine #Splitboard from Paul Vanderheiden on Vimeo.