Splitboard demos available from:
Bindings demos available from:
After using the Split 30's this season on several splitboard trips, I have come to one conclusion. These bindings are awesome. While not for the easily discouraged, initial set up may prove difficult but this is a one stop affair. Once you get them locked on your board its nothing but good times and easy changovers. Definetly don't over look the Split 30's for next season either as they have refined there binding even more.
Take advantage of no toe pin to fuss with and use the heel lock down mode when you really need it.
A higher price then other bindings = more options and superior quality.
We now rent splitboards, Arbor Splitboards to be exact. The Abacus splitboard is set to impress, its super light weight and ready for as much pow as you can get. An environmentally sensitive company that really has a passion for detail oriented boards. Available in 156, 160 & 164 sizes. All boards are equipt with the best hardware from Spark and Volie. Spark Blaze bindings will be provided if needed and High Traction Skins from G3 complete the rental kit. Really it's a dream set up that you can use at a fraction of the price.
Last Thursday the Shuksan arm ripped huge prior to the ski area opening. We had 110 inches in a week on top of a sun crust, followed by 2 feet or so of wet heavy snow, so the avalanche conditions where ripe. This crown of this slide is estimated to be 10~12 feet deep. Since rumble gully was full prior to this slide, this avalanche ran full path, and widened and extended the slide path into the ski area destroying full size timber. The photo posted on Facebook by a various individuals was of the photo that I took LAST YEAR massive slide that ripped off of the Pyramid LAST YEAR. This slide is large than the one last year and larger than the one in 98-99.
Bellow are the shots of this years slide:
“A very large slide on Shuksan Arm just east of the Mt Baker Ski Area ran into Rumble Gulley mid-morning and overran the tree line buffer protecting the base of the Shuksan Arm Chair…depositing debris into the lower part of the run.
This slide is reported as the largest ever witnessed in the area by the General Manager…who has been there for over 40 years and who is closing the area to prevent any accidents involving “sidecountry” exposure to the developing extreme danger.” - Northwest Weather & Avalanche Center (NWAC)
- 110 inches of snow in 6 days
- 8 trees across the highway CLOSED the road and the ski resort yesterday
- HUGE avalanches coming down from the Shuksan Arm
- Warm temperatures have created major instability in the snowpack
- Mt. Baker ski resort CLOSED today due to avalanche danger
“SPECIAL NOTICE: due to the warming temperatures and consequent significantly unstable snow conditions, MT. BAKER WILL BE CLOSED TODAY…” - mt. baker ski resort
“Storm total snow amounts have become increasingly impressive as of early Thursday morning…with Mt Baker having received over 110 inches of snow in the past 6 days! “ – Northwest Weather & Avalanche Center (NWAC)
Most of the snowfall has been with low freezing levels and relatively cold temperatures, however a period of brief warming and heavy snowfall Monday night and early Tuesday morning caused a widespread natural avalanche cycle in many areas. There have been several natural cycles during heavy loading over the past few days, mostly involving more shallow storm layer weaknesses. Avalanches releasing down to the crust from late last week have been explosive releases on control work such as a 4 foot slab at Crystal Mountain Tuesday and a 6+ foot sympathetic release from control at Mt Baker Ski Area.
More recently, avalanche control work in most Cascade west slope areas has produced very sensitive 1 to 2 ft slabs early to mid Thursday morning and increasingly easy and more widespread fracture propagation with each hour. A very large slide on Shuksan Arm just east of the Mt Baker Ski Area ran into Rumble Gulley mid-morning and overran the tree line buffer protecting the base of the Shuksan Arm Chair…depositing debris into the lower part of the run. This slide is reported as the largest ever witnessed in the area by the General Manager…who has been there for over 40 years and who is closing the area to prevent any accidents involving “sidecountry” exposure to the developing extreme danger. Due to very poor visibility, no estimates of the fracture depth are yet available.
At least 8 trees, ranging in diameter from 6-22 inches, fell across the Mt. Baker Highway causing the Washington Department of Transportation to close the highway yesterday. Once the highway was closed, ski resort officials decided to close the ski resort as well.
The trees were laden with 12-18” of new snow and were unable to withstand the weight. We all know how wet Mt. Baker snow is, don’t we? Well, that snow caused some hell in the forests yesterday.
How many trees came down in the Mt. Baker area yesterday? Hundreds? Thousands?
The road was re-opened this morning, but the storm continues full force.
Watch out for those tree wells at Mt. Baker this week/weekend! Baker is getting nailed.
This is just awesome I had to share it....... watch and then go try it.
The Powsurf Chronicles Episode 2: Goods in the Woods from Jeremy Jensen on Vimeo.
2012 02 27 Improving Conditions?
I used to think that managing avalanche risk simply required one to forecast avalanches, and everything else then just fell into place. Boy was I naïve! First, it’s impossible to predict when & where (and for what reason) specific avalanches occur on specific slopes with certainty; that’s the bad news. The good news is that we do a pretty good job at predicting general avalanche trends. Over the past weekend in many of our regions there was abundant new snow, many obvious clues including natural avalanches, and High avalanche danger. Danger Ratings are now lower at Considerable where I suspect they’ll remain for the next few days. We’re pretty confident that the likelihood of natural avalanches is declining but that triggering one yourself remains likely. I just can’t tell you exactly where or when, or how large it will be.
That brings me to my second point. Where we go, and what we do while playing in the mountains has a huge effect on where and when avalanches release. We trigger them ourselves! Managing avalanche risk requires managing ourselves. That’s especially true these days!
I think it’s actually going to be trickier to select terrain and how you travel in it this week (Feb 27 to March 02) with Considerable Danger Ratings (Orange, Level 3) than it was this past weekend. The reason is that decision-making Confidence will be low. Conservative decision-making is easy during a storm or when the mountains are rumbling with large avalanches. It’s after the storm, when the snow remains structurally weak that decision-making is most difficult. The graph below shows the relationship between accidents and decision confidence. In other words, I’m worried!
On the one hand conditions are improving and danger ratings have come down one step. On the other hand obvious clues aren’t that obvious right now. They’re there, but I expect them to be more subtle: fewer natural avalanches mean the snow is stronger, but is it strong enough to ride or primed for triggering? You ride one slope and it was lots of fun, but consider this: Was it safe, or were you simply lucky to have missed the trigger points? What about that slope over there, how do you assess that one? What about tracks? Do they show stable conditions?
The way we see it at the CAC forecasting office is that conditions are actually more difficult today than they were a few days ago. There are lots of reports of remotely triggered avalanches where a person starts a chain reaction under their feet and releases slopes at a distance, maybe that one above you. With fewer natural avalanches people are going to start leaving the trees, sticking their noses out into more terrain, and testing more slopes. Slopes with tracks are going to tempt you and you’re going to have to assess whether they really are a sign of intelligent life, or people under the spell of the sirens’ song (powder & blue sky beckons…).
This week there will be clues to help you evaluate conditions, but they could be subtle and need a bit of detective work to notice. An open-eyed, curious but cautious approach should serve you well. Right now I don’t think it’s about the snow (we know it’s complex and structurally unsound), it’s about us. We have to balance desire and discipline “as conditions improve”.
ilya storm
Do it.... get out and meet the touring community, you know you want to.
