February 15th, 2007
Pow House - Finding the Deep and Soft in the Early Morning Hours before Work
Joe, Zaq and Toby
With the big storm from last weekend depositing a hefty base on top of Pow House, we were playing around with steep lines off the top of the bowl. I found out just how fragile and shallow the steep slope I chose was when I busted loose the slab of snow laying on the steep tilted rock face on my first turn. I also found out I was fortunate this morning to do some speedy skiing and make hard right hand turns. These two maneuvers kept me in front of and away from the rumbling wave of snow that was crashing down the mountain behind me. The slide really had nothing to do with a weak layer in the snowpack, it was just a thin slab of snow that didn't bond to the rock face below. But the sight of the 18" - 24" crown that ran 50' - 60' horizontally was a solid reminder that we has got to be careful out there!
I took most of the pictures with Zaq's camera. But first, a few of me:
The crown and exposed rock face. It was all snow when I dropped in...:
My exit tracks below the slide area:
Zaq was already committed to this same general area, but my line was now nothing but rock. So I pointed him off the rock directly below him. You usually don't hit rocks if you're in the air. He agreed:
Down low we had more fun on the rollovers:
Not a lot of pictures. But lots of fun.
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