Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Shifted: Mountain Biking with Shimano Di2 Electronic Shifting

Last fall I picked up a 2018 Scott Spark 900 Premium that came stock with Shimano’s XT Di2 electronic shifting.

I’ll cut to the chase. I put about 500 miles onto the bike before switching to mechanical shifting.

The bottom line: I lacked confidence in the system.

Nothing happened, I don’t have an epic fail story to share. I’m not a Di2 hater, I don’t think it’s bad.

The story really was: I couldn’t sleep at night.

This was the wrong bike in my quiver for this technology, in my mind.

Di2 presented too high a risk for failure, too high a cost in price and time for repair, and meanwhile I did not experience a significant enough performance gain given those risks.

I’m not riding some disaster-proof metal tank. I’m on an all-carbon frame, carbon wheels, tubeless tires, etc. Any of these components could fail too in their effort to improve performance and reduce weight, and they too could leave me in a bad spot if they fail and could cost a lot to replace. Yet, they’re all less likely to fail; they may be expensive to replace or they may not but regardless they are all easy to replace; and given all of that they provide enough of a performance advantage that far outweighs whatever their potential failure risks are.

 


Why not this bike?

To be clear, what I was most concerned about happening, never happened.

I tested this bike for its first 500 miles mostly in California, and riding trail systems close to home in Anchorage. The bike only went on one backcountry ride in Alaska with Di2.

That first 400 miles I put on in Cali was a nice honeymoon for this bike, but it’s place in the quiver is as follows: high-mileage weekend backcountry adventure stead, endurance racing bike, and Lower 48 bike vacation bike.

For an important point of reference: I retired my previous bike in this category after 3 seasons with 4,264 miles (GPS logged, not estimated).

During the summer, I will regularly put in 75-125 miles of backcountry trail riding in a single week on this bike.

The emphasis here is on backcountry.

The trails are point-to-points, lack regular trail maintenance, sport heavy brush, and provide no end of opportunities to do things to your bike you just shouldn’t do.

More, Alaska’s summers are short. Heavy winter snows, late springs, fast-growing vegetation, and early fall rains can all conspire to further shorten the riding season.

Missing even one weekend of riding up here may mean not riding a trail at all, all season. You can’t control the environment, so, missing a weekend because of mechanical failure is not an option. Period.

What became very clear to me, was that, this system was going to fail.

No, not because it’s electronic per se, but because drivetrains are the most failure-prone part of any mountain bike.

Derailleurs get ripped off by mishaps with brush and rocks, shifter paddles get snapped off in crashes. It’s just part of life for mountain bikes, no matter where you ride.

While the electronic components of the drivetrain have been thoroughly vetted and tested by pros for a half decade who put their equipment through far more severe conditions than I, the electronics too are certainly bound to fail in some way in their own right.

While one may easily conjure the “electronic failure nightmare” of a severed wire, shorted junction box, fried shifting motor, or dead battery, 15 miles from the trail head, the reality is, the failures of the electronic components present no greater adversity in the immediate situation than any other mechanical failure on any other part of the bike. They do add a few more “fail points” perhaps, but at what likelihood, I can’t say.

It doesn’t matter though, electronic or mechanical, you’re still in the same boat: you’ve got a compromised drive train and have to limp out or start jogging.

I’ve been there, done that, and will certainly have to do it again.

If all I was trying to avoid was a catastrophic mechanical in the backcountry, I’d ride a single speed and blow out my knees instead.

The nightmare of a catastrophic mechanical with Di2, at least in my mind, starts when you get back to civilization.

If you rip off your 11 speed mechanical Shimano derail while out on a ride, or any other part of your mechanical drivetrain for that matter, good news: if you want to ride tomorrow, every shop in North America has the replacement parts, in stock.

It might be from a different groupset, it might be more than you want to pay, but you can buy it and install it yourself in an hour or so.

Got Di2? You are likely in for another kind of slog.

Even living in an outdoorsy and bike-crazy town like Anchorage, there are only a handful of cyclists with electronic drivetrains. So, unless you have the replacement part personally on-hand, you’re very likely out of luck. Most in-town shops will doubtfully carry the spare parts in stock. They can of course order the part for you, but it won’t arrive for a week, and you’ll likely pay full price.

You can go online and order the part yourself and get it shipped overnight or 2nd-day, but of course you also pay the premium shipping cost.

While you’re online shopping for that replacement part, you will of course note that every Di2 component costs more than $100. The same mechanical component may cost anywhere from $30 to $75.

Also, depending on what the repair is, you may or may not be able to do the replacement yourself. Di2 is not a simple system. If you can’t install the replacement part yourself, you’re likely still going to need to get your bike in the que at the shop.

So, ya, you obviously had a bummer of a ride this weekend due to the drivetrain failure, but there’s also still a good chance your bike will still be out of commission for next weekend.

Whenever you do get it up and running again, you will have likely paid a lot for that repair…a lot more than you would have for the same issue on a mechanical system.

Here’s scenario 2.

I’m on a bike vacation, and, bang-snap! A shift paddle breaks; or the derail gets ripped off.

If I’m near a major metro area, I may actually be OK, perhaps even in better shape than I would be at home, and will find a shop that can replace the Di2 part – again, for a pretty penny, especially when I have to pay a bribe to get my bike worked on ASAP so I can continue my trip.

If I’m in the middle of nowhere -- often where I like to take my MTB vacations -- I can almost assure you, the local bike shop does not have the Di2 part.

I easily foresaw this playing out for me, and then foresaw having to plead with said local shop to unceremoniously rip off the Di2 and replace it with whatever drivetrain they had in stock, paying full price and maybe that bribe too, just so I could finish out the trip. That, or go running and hiking for the rest of the week while my friends all shred.

When I described this scenario/nightmare to a good friend who spends several weeks every year bike vacationing around the US, he said: “Ya, I’d carry an entire spare groupset if I was you.”

No thanks!

So, ya, it did not take too many nights of tossing and turning on these possibilities before I assembled the replacement mechanical shifters and derails online for a grand total cost of $200, or the equivalent of less than 1.75 Di2 components, and had my shop carefully remove the Di2, and re-install the mechanical parts.

I can’t say I ever looked back on that decisions, and since that time, I’ve put 1700+ miles on the bike mostly here in Alaska, as well as Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming.

 

But, as I said, none of my nightmare scenarios actually happened. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, and dreading it. I knew failure was imminent, I just did not know how, or when, and I wanted more control over what happened afterward.

From a basic performance standpoint, I liked the way electronic shifting felt. It was fast, smooth, and crisp. I loved that there were no cables to clog with mud and dust, no barrel swivels to adjust, no half shifts and ghost shifts. I liked the synchro shifting for 2x, and being able to simply hold a shifter to get multiple shifts.

I would not hesitate to use electronic shifting on a different bike such as my road bike or hard tail, maybe even a snowbike? Those bikes however, never go far from home, and won’t break my heart if they are out of commission for a week or two.

Electronic makes a lot of sense on bikes in general, and maybe one day it will on this particular bike.

I definitely want to see electronic shifting succeed too. In this day and age of technology, mechanical shifting is archaic. Lousy shifting is something that should be eradicated like an ancient disease.

If electronic does catch on, I think there is a possibility to wholly re-visit the layout and design of the cockpit of modern mountain bikes. What if shifters no longer had to be levers and triggers? How small could they get? How could we redesign dropper and lock out levers, and might those too soon be controlled by teeny motors? Who knows?

I will say that I’m most hopeful for wireless systems such as SRAM’s Eagle eTap. Avoiding an intermediary junction box, wiring harness, and battery, seem like no brainers from a maintenance and re4liability standpoint, though I assume that cost and parts availability issues will remain issues well into the next decade. I guess we will see.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Tercero/Beluga Peak North Couloir

Tony D dropped a line. He and a crew were headed up Mills Creek for some ski camping and exploring, and wanted to know if I wanted join.

Duh.

One Phatty and phour phree-heal phreaks (Nathan was on teles) rallied to the middle of nowhere.

The Kenais have had a lean winter, Summit area is exceptionally thin, and has sported lousy stability most the season. Other than one outing there to poke around, I’ve avoided it like the plague. Not worth it.

With the spring cycle in full swing, the troubled and thin pack was quickly peeling away from most aspects, and grass and shrubs were popping back out on wind-blown slopes. It looked more like May, but stability had come back for the higher elevation north faces.

Skiing the north couloir on El Tercero/Beluga Peak (see LINK for info on Mills Creek peak names) has been on the agenda for a couple years.

Tony and Craig – Chunk made the probable first descent of Beluga’s north side some 12 years ago. In March 2016, Tony, Trent, Nathan, and I skied right under Beluga’s north couloir, and were tempted, but opted instead to focus our energy on the un-skied neighboring Stormy Peak and its ragged north face instead.

This spring, I didn’t expect Beluga or any of its ridgeline couloirs to be in great shape, but with a nice mid-week refresh, sunny weather in the forecast, and Beluga’s summit elevation above 5,000 feet, I knew it would still be soft, despite ambient temps getting above freezing as high as 3,500 feet.

Tony, Paul, and Jay got an early start, and were a couple hours ahead of Nathan and I. Nathan and I left the road around 10, and made good time, getting to Stormy Creek a bit before 1.

Tony and crew had checked out part of the route on Friday afternoon to confirm all the snow bridges were still in, so route finding was easy. The only challenge were the deep and now re-frozen tracks left by Tony and Jay. The short slick descents on the mining roads proved to be some of the scariest skiing of the weekend! The refrozen ski trenches threatened to grab and catch a ski at any moment. Add in heavier overnight packs, and it was downright, slide-slip, terrifying!

Anyway, the small upshot to a very lean winter was that alders were left standing upright along most the Mills Creek aqueduct. It was actually easier travel on this section then it was deep winters the past, where some nefarious alders were left bowed over.

That being said, we found ourselves searching for traction on thick, dry grass climbing up and down wind-blown bluffs. Crossing the numerous melted out ditches on the mining road and aqueduct, we skinned through damp moss, and stomped through slimey muck.

We got to camp, and the crew had just finished setting up and having lunch.

Nathan and I found a new use for our Verts: stomping out a tent platform. On the warm sunny bench, if you tried to walk without skis, you would immediately fall hip-deep in mank.

Tony, Paul, and Jay set off for the unnamed Beluga drainage, while Nathan and I finished setting up camp.

We caught up a little bit later under Stormy’s melting southwest face, a place I’d love to return to in mid-winter.

On the trek in, seeing how deep Tony and Jay had been trenching in on their tour the previous afternoon, Nathan and I discussed the idea of just going for Beluga today, and using the firm morning crust Sunday for a drama-free exit.

As we skied up Beluga’s valley, we didn’t find soft snow until about 3,500 feet, and we noted that most the northerly lines on Beluga’s ridge had either sloughed out and were full of chunder, or were very boney and unappealing.

Even the big north couloir was shockingly thin. Fortunately, it lacked any massive chunder piles.

Decision made: up we went.

Beluga is a pretty easy peak to get. You can literally take the ridge right up out of Mills Creek valley for a 2 mile sky-walk if you want. There appears to be some ridge crux action about midway as the ridge spikes upward – and may either require skinning out over a the southwest facing gully, or a short boot, it probably depends on the snow year. Another option is to go up the unnamed Beluga drainage and climb the west-facing headwall separating Beluga and Stormy peaks, then take Beluga’s wrap-around ridge south. This year, the wrap-around ridge was in good shape and lacking big cornices, however, the headwall was showing signs of deterioration and rotting out. In 2016, we climbed the headwall to get to Stormy. It made sense for Stormy, and was a month easrlier, but I can’t say it was great, and in hindsight, I would have preferred to have had Verts for that climb and narrowed exposure on the wall.

Lastly, you can boot a few of Beluga’s northerly couloirs to attain its summit ridge, including the main summit couloir.

We chose the latter.

The boys set up in the sun down in the cirque to watch while Nathan and I pushed the skinner to the base of the couloir and switched to booting.

Beluga’s north couloir is, like many Kenai mountain couloirs, not a clearly defined feature.

In the big picture, it’s actually more of an hourglass with twin necks. The bottom bulb of the hour glass is the apron, and splits out with a few fins that will be variously protruding in differing snow years. The top bulb connects to the curved summit ridge. The further eastward you go down Beluga’s ridge from its summit, the more overhang there is from cornices.

The twin necks of the hour glass each feature their own varying level of character, including chokes and blades of rock that may or may not be exposed depending on the snow year.

There is also an easterly facing “blowhole” couloir that peels away from Beluga’s iconic suspended summit field and feeds into the north couloir. I don’t know if the blowhole goes every year. On this trip, we looked up the blowhole and observed it was totally wind jacked with 2-3 foot, rock-hard wind drifts. It’s got to be an amazing run when it goes.

The initial boot above the apron was good, soft, and promised to ski well.

As we climbed into the twin necks of the hour glass, we stayed in the climber’s right neck, and mid-way, conditions deteriorated to hardpack, and became somewhat wind jacked.

A near constant stream of dry snow and quarter to dime-sized flakes of rock were skittering their way down from above.

Being so thin this year, there was a shocking amount of exposed rock in the mid-section: all of it sharp, flakey shale. We followed the “best” snow leftward through a set of short twin chokes that were each about two ski lengths wide, and then pulled out of the chokes onto a fat rib that is the pinch point for the upper bulb of the hour glass.

The push to the top sucked. Hanging summit fields like this are a nightmare, especially when they sit over thin, boney lines. The snow was Styrofoam-like, and increasing in depth with every step. There was nowhere to hide up here, it was Nathan’s lead, it had been a long day, and there was no safe way do a switch out until Nathan topped out – neither of us trusted the snow pack up here enough to pile up.

Finally up top, a cool wind and a nice, wide, rounded ridge greeted us.

Other than “stopping” to stomp in a camp, this was the first time we’d stopped moving all day. We were both exhausted, and anxious about the descent.

The boys, having lost their sun, followed our skin track, and part of our booter, to the base of the twin necks, and then scooted left under the eastern neck, to get out of our way.

I dropped first.

I was pretty nervous about the upper section. The snow was suspect. Unlike a more classic couloir, there was no safety up here, no safe place to cut and run. My options if things went wrong would be to either point it down the fat rib toward the “safety” of a massive serrated fin of rock and hope the snow parted ways, or to cut hard skiers left across the boney choke that we avoided on the climb to the apparent safety of the summit’s massive rock face.

Neither inspired safety.

I dropped in, stayed high, progressively increased the force of each turn until I was centered above the top of the rib, and then made a few hard cuts, blowing what had felt like stiff-feeling snow into blinding clouds of crystalized powder.

Emerging from the powder clouds, and seeing only minor slough running on either side of the rib, I rode out the delightful feature and pulled up next to the serrated blade of rock. A now thick stream of slough trained its way down either side of me through the twin chokes below, but the snow felt great – much better than expected.

Next, I dropped into the choke we climbed. Conditions were hard pack, but highly edge-able. I easily made 4 very fast jump turns through the choke, and skied into the top of the main neck.

Immediately, the wind jacked snow began to reject my heel-side edge, but in sliding, I released slough.

I stopped on the far side of the neck for a minute and watched the thin, dirty, slough hiss over the bumpy hardpack snow.

For a second, I wondered what the F I was doing here.

Then an idea occurred.

I fired back across the bumpy snow, jump turned hard and kicked as much of the hardpack loose as I could, and then pointed it for my newly made 6’x6’ slough pile.

As I hit the slough, the board lifted up and surfed over the bumps.

That thought I just had, it was gone.

I was fully engaged.

Firing back and forth, I high sided in and out of the neck, jump turning, dropping back down to surf a few turns on slough, before high siding back out, over and over, until the wind jacked snow finally faded beneath softer snow lower down the line.

Once my edges stopped needing to bite firmly, and the snow softened, I was able to point the nose and ride out some sweet turns to where the boys were piled in.

I radioed up to Nathan and reported conditions, cautioning him to take his time through the wind jacked section.

A few minutes later we were all grouped back up.

Being the only boarder in the group, I asked if it would be OK if I tore down the rest of the apron so I could carry speed across the rolling drainage. Along the way, I hit 45mph.

The mostly supportable snow made it easy to board and double pole the entire 3-4 miles back to camp.

The sun dipped behind the valley walls, but lit up Stormy Peak’s north face, providing a great backdrop to an evening of laughs and lost ski stories.

Despite the lingering spring light, we turned in early. All night, dozens of ptarmigan ptartied (see what I did there) around our camp. Males competed for the attention of potential mates, or fought off rivals, raising a complete ruckus. I slept well, but occasionally woke and wished Mr. Wolverine or Mr. Lynx would come by and break it all up!

The next morning Nathan downed breakfast and I stuck with the plan to exit. There wasn’t anything really beckoning us to ski, and I was surprised to notice my legs were more sore than I would have expected. We enjoyed the firm snow for a cruise out. As it was, even in the past day, a few of the snow bridges had started to sag and crack, and the one over Juneau Creek actually groaned as Nathan sprinted over it.

Even if it wasn’t deep and wintry, it was a great weekend with a great crew in one of my favorite locales. I love ski camping.

Beluga as seen on the approach. The North Couloir nestles it's way out of sight in the back.


Super boney this year. The v-shaped twin chokes at the top are likely non existent most year. This year, they made it a little spicey.

Soft conditions on the way up

Out on the upper bulb, it skied great, but the broad slope over a narrow chasm with stiff snow wasn't much fun.


Up top.

Back out over Mills

The Upper Mills





Still looks like winter up here.

Stormy's glowing north face provided a nice backdrop and good memories.

Tony deconstructing camp.





















Friday, April 13, 2018

A Bad Day, That Could Have Been Worse

February 16th was the kind of bad day that could have been a lot worse.

The short of the day, was that Aaron and I were skiing the backside of Microdot in Hatcher. Climbing back up, we overtook another group of two on what appeared to be a low consequence slope, and triggered a short, wide, 3-foot deep slab above complicated terrain that took three of us for a ride and left one us buried neck deep.

For a few seconds, I was certain I was going into a hole and would be buried and maybe crushed. Luck is all that kept me on the surface in the end. Like all days, there were a lot of decisions made, most were small, and seemingly inconsequential. This is my attempt to look back at them, with the advantage of hindsight, and consider what went right, and what went wrong.

Pre-Slide

After weeks without snow, Hatcher Pass had been walloped early in the week, first by a windy and warm storm that dropped around 2 feet of snow. I initially expected the snow to be very reactive due to the old and wind hammered base.

Data on how the new snow what reacting on the old base was sparse. The road to the Pass was left unplowed. Skiers struggled to get up to Hatcher Monday or Tuesday. Mid-week, a second, colder system passed through dropping another foot of lighter snow with minimal wind, burying clues from slides that occurred during or after the first storm.

The road remained unplowed Wednesday and Thursday, and what little info was coming out of the Pass offered mixed signals. Considering the wind-hammered base the initial storm had fallen on, natural avalanches were sparse, when it seemed they should have been rampant. There was fairly ample evidence however, that the new snow was readily reacting to skiers.

The slides being reported were running out in typical storm slab configurations: generally narrow, slowly, and softer in composition. These are the types of slides one might expect as the storm abates and the snow begins to settle down. 

On Friday, with the road plowed, Aaron and I decided to go check things out

Decisions 

Decision 1: Self-assigned danger rating of considerable. Synopsis: Correct

Hatcher has a once a week av forecast issued on Saturdays, which was not yet out. Observation info was limited, and mixed. That being said, the base/bed surface the snow had fallen on warranted suspicion. Based on what I knew, I assigned a danger rating of considerable. The rating plays a role in my personal decision making. A professional, or personal assignment of “considerable” equals an automatic one “flag” for me. Three flags, and the day is over.

Decision 2: Flat light delay. Synopsis: correct.

Friday dawned with high clouds, but a forecast to clear. Given the self-assigned considerable rating, we delayed start until noon when it was apparent that skies were actually clearing. Hatcher is a difficult place to ski when you can’t see. When conditions are good, you can continue to ski therein low light, but the point of this ski was to get info. Not being able to see or having obscured vision, was both a risk, and negated much of the purpose of going at all.

Decision 3: Observing a fresh skier-triggered slide and not marking it as a flag. Synopsis: incorrect.

As we arrived, we passed Marmot’s west face, and observed a very fresh (less than 5 minutes old) skier-triggered storm slide. It appeared the skier had skied past a trigger point and was some ways down the slope before they realized the slope was sliding, and safely exited the relatively narrow slide path. The skier’s two partners skied next to the slide with no additional reaction. I asked the ranger if he had witnessed the slide but he said he had missed it. I suspected it was similar to the skier-triggered slides that had been reported earlier during the week: slow-starting, deep, able to run full path, but non-cohesive. This was concerning, but I did not consider it a flag at the time. The slide was clearly slow, and the snow seemed somewhat stubborn, and the slide had triggered where the skier passed by a classic trigger point: a rock and convex protrusion.

In hindsight, these were some of, if not the first skiers on this slope, and they had nearly instantly triggered a slide. Regardless of whether the slide indicated a “healing” interface this should have been flag 2 for the day.

 
Decision 4: Pit test – no clear decision rendered.

On the way up Microdot, we passed a pit dug by the avalanche center. I reused the back of the pit to isolate a new column. I would not call this a formal test, however, it was far more formal than any previous pole pits conducted to this point. We observed a moderate force trigger, easy leverage, and a clean shear. The pit, to me, indicated typical spatial variability, we exposed a potential, though not widely existent, smooth bed surface. We knew this reaction was spatially variable based on pole pits. This confirmed a suspicion that the slides were triggering in specific locations, and were generally sliding more due to the mass of available loose snow/inertia, but were failing to propagate on a wide scale due to a lack of a cohesive slab structure or the existence of a wide spread consistent bed surface and weak layer combo. Basically, hit the right spot, you would get something to slide, and in steep terrain it would carry enough snow to slide down the fall line, but it would do so fairly slowly. In general, it’s not likely I’d ever commit a flag to a single pit result in any situation, unless the pit revealed an unexpected condition, in which case, I’d be looking to dig more pits. Pits are good for getting a good look at layers, but are indicative of a small spatial area, especially in Hatcher. In hindsight, this was evidence that should have been accounted for, but not compelling.

Decision 5: Subtle collapsing on established skin track – no clear decision rendered.

We observed subtle collapsing on an established skin track on Micro’s rounded west side. Aaron seemed to notice this more than I did, but Aaron is a good bit taller than me, and heavier as a result. When he commented on this, I was able to get some very deep, muffled collapsing by jumping up and down. The aspect where this occurred is underlain by large (and now buried) boulders that are typically exposed; and is a wind-hammered ridge. Collapsing was not a surprise given the sub-surface, but what was surprising, was that the skin track was a day or more old and had been traversed by at least 8-12 skiers. Again, Similar to the pit results, this reaction, on this slope, did not (and likely still would not) warrant a “flag,” but it should have increased the level of suspicion, and been a clear indication thigs were not “alright.”

Decision 6: False positive observation of skiers in Rae Wallace. Synopsis: incorrect.

This was one biggest mistakes of the day in my view. While climbing, we observed two skiers drop into a steep and finned chute on the western side of Rae Wallace. The skiers were cutting hard, and passed over numerous potential trigger points, but failed to initiate anything more than sloughing. I gave this observation immense weight, more than any other observation to this point. Why? Because it showed what I wanted to see. I wanted conditions to be stable, and this appeared to show it. Instead of considering this a neutral observation (maybe they got lucky, may steep north-facing had already slid, etc.) I overshadowed the previous observations made.

Decision 7: Skiing the north side and deviating from plan. Synopsis: wrong, no safe exit strategy for conditions.

The plan had been to ski the sunny south side, however, it was well tracked. As we topped out, a group of two descended the unskied north side. I heard a loud collapse as the first skier dropped in, but observed no cracks or other reactivity. The second skier, a snowboarder, dropped in next, with no collapse. I felt good about the slope as it is concave in the center, and punctured with micro features that break the slope and can act as snowpack anchors. The skiers had initiated a collapse, but it was right off the ridge, not a surprise, and there were no visible cracks. Aaron also felt good after watching the two skiers drop in, so we followed a few minutes later. We did not get any reactions. Skiing this slope would not cause us any problems, but we did not have a good exit strategy, and that’s what would bite us.

Decision 8: Climbing north side of Microdot. Synopsis, incorrect.

The snow was incredible, we were leaning toward the idea that conditions were stable. We had the choice to either climb back up the north side, or exit the bowl. The latter option chews up a lot of time (less skiing), but the former would either put us on a steep slope we’d just skied when other skiers were likely to descend on us. We could also put in a more circuitous climb northeast of the main north side run. The two skiers in front of us were a few minutes ahead of us, and began to break a trail, climbing this circuitous north east route. We did not communicate with them about route selection prior, but later confirmed that they chose this route to avoid skinning directly up the main run, which they also assumed would have skiers dropping in.

At the time, this seemed like a prudent decision, I was familiar with the terrain, I had recently used this route, and felt good. In the face of no better evidence, this might have been an OK decision. In the face of the actual evidence observed, and having two flags already up, we likely should have just exited the bowl.

Decision 9: Catching and passing on a steep slope. Synopsis: too close, avalanche/incident.

This is where it all came to head. Trail breaking was slow and deep. Aaron and I were able to catch up with the two other skiers, who I will refer to as skiers 1a and 1b, in a sub bowl approximately 200 vertical feet above Murphy Lake.

Skiers 1a and 1b were approaching an approximately 100-foot northerly facing slope above the sub bowl that lead into the next, smaller bowl. This was the incident slope. Skiers 1a and 1b were approximately 25 yards apart; 1a was entering the incident slope, setting a skin track across the slope using a narrow natural bench that cross-cut the slope.

In a non-judgmental way, I did not like this route, and would have preferred to stay in the flats of the sub-bowl and use a short concave gully on the climber’s left of the incident slope. I’d used this small gully feature before, but, with deep snow, and a small and unintimidating incident slope, I opted to stay the course and follow the broken track to try to catch skier 1a and relieve them of the arduous trail breaking.

I caught up with 1a approximately mid-slope on the incident slope, and was about 10 feet behind 1a.

Everything I’d observed to this point, barring one false positive, should have had told me I had 2 flags raised, and the antennae should have been on high. Getting this close to another skier on a steep (greater than 35 degrees), albeit short slope, that I did not like to begin with, over terrain traps, was just stupid, and about to be a big mistake.

Slide

At this time, skiers 1b and Aaron were just entering the incident slope about 25 and 27 yards respectively behind me and 1a.

As 1a and I passed a mostly buried rock outcrop, (the area featured numerous micro features including buried boulders and micro channels), the snowpack settled 2-3 inches.

All 4 skiers felt the settlement.

The slope began to fracture and broke an apex crown about 30 feet above skier 1a and I, and fractured approximately 150 yards across, at a depth of 2.5-3 feet. Slope angle across the slope varied due to the micro terrain.

Aaron was the farthest back, and on the edge of the fracture. By turning around he was able to escape the slab.

Skier 1b deployed their airbag and was knocked down. They were carried an estimated 25 vertical feet or more, sliding through a channel. Skier 1b said they felt their airbag slow them down and keep them above the moving snow.

For myself, a memory kicked in as the snow slowly crumbled and I felt myself sink and lurch down. I turned downhill and was able to take a stride or two before being knocked backward by the acceleration. I was in a sitting position, upright, facing downhill, leaning back over the tails of my skis. I could tell immediately that I was being carried directly toward a number of potential terrain traps at the base of the slope, likely small tarns.

As the slide initiated, I in line with a low, snow-covered ridge of rock, this feature played a role in keeping me safe. By constantly moving my ski tips upward, while using my poles laid flat behind me (no wrist straps attached) I was able to provide some directional steering and float above the moving snow and ride on the higher micro terrain. I could occasionally feel the bed surface with my fists, likely buried snow-covered rocks.

As the rock ridge narrowed and ended, the snow pulled me to the right, toward a channel that lead into a terrain trap that I could see was going to fill.

At this moment, I realized I had to fight with everything I had to stay on the little ridge, or I would end up in the hole.

I plunged my left hand into the snow and planted the handle of my left pole as hard as I could into the bed surface. The snow pushed past me for a second and I was able to wheel leftward, redirecting myself at the last second, to instead stay straight and ride over a 3-4 foot snow covered ledge. The torque from the maneuver tore the pole from my hand, which was planted with enough force it was still pointing outward after the slide.

As I spilled over the ledge, the slide lost momentum, and I could see I was on a small alluvial feature, and was going to be OK. I was carried an estimated 50 vertical feet according to a GPS track.

Skier 1a also turned down hill as the slide initiated, however, 1a was directly above several terrain traps located at the base of the slope. Skier 1a deployed their airbag. I heard the bag deploy, but never saw if it inflated. After the incident, 1a said they believed the bag deflated during the slide or never immediately inflated, and when I discovered 1a, there was no evidence the bag had been inflated at the time of burial.

Skier 1a was carried right, and traveled an estimated 75 vertical feet. I was able to see skier 1a get dragged right, but lost sight of them due to my own struggle and to a raised terrain feature.

The slide lasted an estimated 10-15 seconds, and had effectively slipped the entire incident slope.

It was unlike any of the skier triggered slides yet observed, and carried a classic slab pattern, including a few step downs.

Response

Aaron was off slope as the slide stopped; Skier 1b was on top of the snow but partially hidden from view of Aaron and I as they were in a small channeled terrain feature; I was upright at the base of the slope below the ledge, my left leg was buried shin deep, but the tail of that ski was at least 2 feet deep, my right ski was on the surface. Skier 1a was not visible to the rest of the group and was buried to their neck, facing down slope, slightly reclined, and surrounded above all but their right hand.

Of note, skiers 1a and 1b also had a dog with them. It is not clear to any of us where the dog was at the time of the slide’s initiation, nor where the dog was after the slide. It is possible the dog was buried or partially buried in the slide, and extricated itself, as we all distinctly remember it appearing after the slide during the extraction of skier 1a.

I immediately called out that I was up, and OK as the slide stopped, I could see Aaron. Aaron confirmed he was ok. About 5 seconds later, skier 1b called that they were OK and stood up.

The three of us were now visible to each other, but could not see skier 1a. We began to shout and call for skier 1a. No response was heard, and there were no visible indicators of their location.

I initiated the search, and called for all beacons to be switched to search mode.

I had the last visual of 1a, and was closest at the time of the slide. My beacon indicated an initial distance of about 25 meters to skier 1a; Aaron, who was farthest away, had an initial reading of 65 meters.

Based on the fact that I suspected skier 1a was fully buried in a terrain trap, and was relatively close, I chose to dig down and release my foot from my buried left ski and abandon it rather than excavating it first. I believed I could reach 1a as, or more quickly on foot.

I unclicked from my right ski and used it, and my remaining pole as aids to scramble through the debris while heading in the direction I had seen 1a carried, checking my beacon for reference.

Aaron still had both skis and skins on and was beginning his search, however, he was father away and had to traverse the base of the debris initially. Aaron remarked later that he was surprised how slow and challenging it was to travel through the still-soft debris, and that he felt like he was “going through mud.”

I called 5 meter increments, which also seemed to come slowly, and was lead on a trajectory over the small ridged terrain feature that divided where I had been sent and where 1a had been sent. I also initially felt that progress was slow, however, not having skis on made it easier to scramble a direct route across the debris and micro features since the distance was short.

Upon climbing the small ridge feature, my readings dropped instantly from 20 to 15 meters.

That’s when I first heard a muffled call for help.

Below me, 10 meters away or less, I spotted a glove protruding from the snow.

I yelled “I have a hand.”

Later, 1a would say this was the first thing they heard, despite the yelling the three of us had been shouting.

I was slightly uphill of the hand, which I still did not know was not just a glove on the surface. I began to yell to 1a that I heard them.

As I scrambled down, I was able to make sight contact with 1a, whose head was just barely above the surface, and yelled this to the group.

1a was buried upright, facing downhill, leaning slightly back, buried with compact snow to their neck, loose snow to their mouth, their right arm stuck up, their left arm buried. Though loose snow had collected around 1a’s mouth, they had an unobstructed airway. Snow was piled about 1.5 feet above 1a, only their hand was visible on the surface, their head was sunken into the depression.

As the slide had stopped, 1a knew it would be their last chance to create an air pocket, and shoved their arm upward and swung it across their face. The snow settled and instantly froze them in that position.

The time between the end of the slide and my contact with 1a was 3-4 minutes. This was verified by a GPS track.

I assessed that 1a was breathing, conscious, able to make eye contact, and had color in their face. At face level, I brushed loose snow away from 1a’s mouth, and asked 1a if they were hurt, or felt any pain or injury. 1a said they were struggling to breath; 1a’s breathing and speech was audibly labored, this being due to the weight of snow on their chest.

I chose to forgo any further potential injury assessment, and began to excavate snow away from 1a’s chest.

I carry my shovel with the handle in place so it can be deployed in a single motion. If you don’t do this, you’re wasting time. Adrenaline will be on high in these moments, stupid things like sliding a shovel shaft into the blade will be stupidly slow. Everything you do to make the search faster are an aid, whether it’s easy access to your beacon, or rescue equipment.

Despite the adrenaline, I was aware that I kept a high situational awareness, watching for near or far hang fire.

Even as the urge to want to start digging furiously set in, I made sure to tuck my beacon back into my jacket, closed the zipper, and situated my pack uphill and away from where I’d be excavating snow. These were all conscious decisions that happened. I was aware they were happening, but they all felt automatic. I can only attribute this to both practicing for this, and for rehearsing it mentally.

Approximately 1 minute after I arrived, Aaron arrived. Aaron deployed his shovel and began to assist removing accumulated snow, forming a shovel train.

Here’s where I made a mistake, albeit, a small one: Aaron, like I, was relieved to see skier 1a above the snow, conscious, etc. I never communicated to Aaron that 1a was struggling to breath though. To this point, communication had been good, but lacking that knowledge, Arron did not know there was still urgency to the situation. This came up after the incident, but it was worth noting.

Skier 1b arrived about 1 minute after Aaron. 1b was emotionally upset from the incident, and relieved to find their partner well.

After a few minutes of excavating 1a down to their waist, I slowed and asked 1a to re-assess for potential injuries. 1a said they felt good, other than a sore knee. 1a was now able to breath easily and to communicate fully. I continued to excavate behind 1a, as well as to dig to 1a’s feet so I could release 1a’s skis, which were both still attached. I did my best to avoid knocking more snow on 1a, and communicated clearly when I was moving blocks of snow away from and behind their head, knowing that the sensation of reburial can cause panic in these situations. 1a was calm and collected the entire time.

Once free of 1a’s skis, I used 1a’s backpack straps to pull 1a fully free.

Post-incident

The group spent some time after the response discussing the incident and assessing conditions that had lead up to the slide. Both groups agreed that while there was evidence of instability, there were also not as many typical flags, nor ample evidence of flags. Skiers 1a and 1b had reported they had been snow machine skiing in the area the day prior, and reported that they had spent the day easing onto progressively steeper slopes with no results or reactivity. Aaron and I had noted what we saw as inconsistent activity, indicative of spatial variability. None of the skiers in the groups had conducted their own formal stability tests. Experience levels in the group were high. All skiers involved in the incident had 10 or more years of backcountry skiing experience.

All skiers involved agreed that spacing and slope angle where a problem, particularly given that there were signs of instability.  

At the time of the incident, I had approached within 10 feet of skier 1a. Who knows whether better spacing could have prevented the incident, or whether it still may have caused a slide as 1a passed, or delayed the slide until myself, 1b, or Aaron passed.

Skiers 1a and 1b were not upset, they, like myself, did not suspect the slope to be a threat. To the point, not knowing whether the slide would have triggered because of spacing, they were thankful we had decided to follow them. No other skiers would ski the north side of Microdot that day.

Another factor that contributed to the slide, these bowls are in a sheltered, northerly facing terrain feature. With additional protection provided by the small micro features. They were likely points to harbor buried surface facets over the wind hammered base that had been proving to be a reactive layer over the buried bed surface elsewhere. Our previous travels had been on aspects that likely would have seen the facets wiped away.

On first glance, the relatively small size of the slope, and apparent “slope anchoring” provided by these micro terrain features, might have given the impression that while steep, the slope was not high risk. Over a flat run out, or with a smaller snow load, the slope would not have necessarily been problematic, but given the snow load, the two flags that were up, the evidence that conditions were still unsettled and variable, and existence of terrain traps, this slope deserved better travel protocol, or avoidance entirely. Interestingly, we had intentionally avoided the main north side slope expecting skiers to enter it, but no one ever did.

After the slide, we all skied back down our skin track to Murphy Lake, then across the lake, and back down to Independence Mine.

Root Causes

Personal: I want to see what I want to see. I want stable snow so I can go ski the lines that engage me. Lacking snapping red flags, I chose to focus on evidence that leant itself toward stability, and ignored or dismissed the evidence to the contrary.

Protocol: had I been willing to see the evidence for what it was, I would have been more concerned with both route selection and spacing. While my intentions were good to catch up, I should have waited before crossing the incident slope, and caught up with 1a on the flat above.

It sucks to know you messed up. The biggest take away for me, was the reminder that I need to ease up. I have a habit of seeing what I want. There’s a balance. This sport is inherently risky, it is uncontrolled, and thus risk management is subjective and personal.
 
View from below. T is the trigger point, black line was the skin track, 1a is where skier 1a was buried

View of the approach slope.

Burial location. Good example of how a relatively small slide can pile a lot of snow in the right features

Not great shots of two skier-triggered slides on Marmot. The slide to the right was triggered as we arrived, the slide to the left was triggered moments before we left.

 

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Sidney Creek Circuit and “The Juicer”

A couple years ago, in a season of lower snowfall, Cody and I went for a tour into Sidney Creek, a tributary to Archangel, and saw a striking line off the Sidney-side of Microdot.
A crooked line that falls between two “cat ear” flakes of granite; narrow, and peppered in it’s upper half, it slips through a 55-degree 6-foot-wide choke midway, and then opens up wide to the bottom.
In January 2015, Cody and I booted through variable snow to the choke. Above us, we had supportable bullet proof snow in the choke, and higher yet, two notable ledges.
The line went into a mental notebook, and disappeared for a couple years.

Photo: N.W.


Last week, our winter’s latest bout of bi-polar disorder crescendoed with temperatures that hit 50 degrees in parts of the Anchorage Bowl, and winds that roared into the 70MPH range in Hatchers. As bad as that sounds, the winds did a thorough job wiping out and compacting the long-dried out and faceted snow that had hung out through the holidays. A “make up, we’re sorry” snowfall ensued midweek to put a happy face on an angry season, and Hatcher was back in a 24-hour turnaround.
WTF.

Nathan, Meredith, and I headed out Friday afternoon under cold, clear skies. The winds had slam-packed the snow, stability was good, surface conditions were drier and sloughy.
The Juicer tour was on.
We slipped up the sunny front side of Microdot, and skied into the settled backside powder down to the lake. A fun, feature-routed skinner brought us below the back side of the cat ear entrance.
I had some concern the benign looking flakes we were aiming for would be the wrong entry. The short boot wasn't much fun, despite the wind's work, bare boots plunged into the snow.
We climbed into the enclave and onto a cornice, walked out onto the hard snow, and looked down.
There were three separate reactions to what we saw between the three of us.
The upper portion of the line was steep, a little wind blown, and loaded with shark fins. It funneled down to a point where we simply couldn't see any more of the line, just rock buttresses.
I was 95% this was the Juicer from my angle, and when I joined Nathan in the narrow entrance, I could see the choke below, and the wider lower section.
This was it alright.

Not much to see from the top.

As expected, the upper portion of this line was going to be a very slow, conservative ski. We were likely to knock down a lot of slough even making jump turns, there was no where to hide, and there was a lot of nasty crap to get grated over or scraped against if you lost your feet.
We discussed that aside from some of the visible rock, there might be at least one, possible two, exposed, or thinly buried ledges.

Meredith wanted to go first. It was a committing ski, I didn't doubt for a second she could handle it, but I was expecting to either tail gun or lead this line, with Meredith in the middle.
It was definitely the right call. We discussed the strategy. She would ski down through the choke as conservatively as she pleased. Once through the choke, I knew there was an enclave for her to hang out and hide under. She would radio back up from there.

Down she went, jump turning between the rocks. We lost sight of her as she approached the choke, but released a significant amount of slough, enough in fact, that her slough was able to step down and pull out a lower layer of densified snow in one place.

Meredith dropping. Photo: N.W.

She radioed up that she was below the choke, but that in skiing through the choke, her slough had taken out a lot of snow, making it even narrower.
I took my time jump turning down, but felt really good. As I closed in on the choke, I could see that some slough had held over the choke proper. I decided to straight line the feature, and bypass the enclave Meredith was hanging out in as I'd be too hot after shooting the 55-degree slope, and instead steer into the next enclave 50 feet down the line. I feared taking the choke slow would erode more of the snow and I wanted to leave something for Nathan. I was confident with the line below that I could pull this off.
I took a deep breath and pointed the nose into a straight line dive through the narrow slot, blasted out, and bled off speed into the next enclave, thrilled with the rush.

My turn. Photo: N.W.

Blasting out of the choke. Photo: M.N.

Nathan made the shortest work of the line, and got to ski the whole Juicer top to bottom. Meredith followed from here hide out, and I dropped the lower section last.

Nathan slashes speed exiting the choke. Photo M.N.
 
Meredith drops into the lower half. Nice perspective on the upper half.
 


We party skied down through to the valley bottom to turn around and see the line, and all it's neighbors, rising above.

Photo: M.N.



We finished the circuit and the day by heading back up the gentle pass to Microdot's shoulder, and skiing the sunlit slope back down to Independence.



Photo: M.N.

Nathan throws contrails into the sun.



When I see a line like this, and park it away, only to think of it in passing moments of recollection, in the space between sleep and dreams; to eventually go out and ski it, even years later, to feel as good out there as it did in dreams, it's definitely what keeps me hitched to this sport. This was easily one of the most rewarding lines I've skied in Hatcher, and I'd rate it just behind Key Slot in the overall.

With some clouds rolling in, Joe, Nathan and I returned Saturday to ski Hidden Couloir and fish around Babe Ruth.


A view like this in the morning is better than coffee.

From the top.


Photo: J.E.

Gratuitous shot of the ski trails. They're thin, but skiing great!