Valdisease 13/14 De-Mechanized

[Valdez Telehead]

11-23 Dumped about 3 feet in Thompson Pass over the past few days which had barely settled at sunrise today. Deep snow in Moonlight and some solstice like sunlight. Here's a few pics…

Same gear for the third straight season. Second pair of Drifts and replaced the o1's once. I wear them loose on the up.



Did a 2 laps on the lower part of SOG. Seemed a little too loaded and winded to go higher.

Distant dreams.


Snowpoles and home.

[jfb]

Oh, yeah! That's what we've been waiting for.

[priceonice]

Great stoke and nice pics. Just have to say that the thread title is a bit of a downer. You've got good posts and they're usually positive. I've never been to Valdez and it looks beautiful. Is it sick? Valuedease? Mechanized is a matter of degree. I drive to the trailhead, I'm mechanized. In stoke thought, yours are earned, valued plus, maybe not easy.

Thanks for the photos.

[dewam]

Price, I am sure that VT knows the history of "Valdisese" much better than I do, but I do know that has been its name around the state for the 40 years I have been around. I never thought of it as a downer, maybe just a little truth in advertising. Just using local slang.

[James]

Nice pics thanks. There is something special about the last one for me.

[aqua toque]

There is something special about the last one for me.

Snow poles?

[Valdez Telehead]

Skinning solo was brutal with a catchy ice crust just under 12-16" of dry powder for the first mile or so into the "Worth-it" Glacier. Valdez has been nuked with snow as we are 68" for November, thus just a few inches from the second snowiest November(74") The record is 107" or something sick(like that. More precip has fallen in Valdez in the past years than ever before.

De-mechanized? From the trailhead seems like a logical place.


Found things much better on the Glacier and kept going til crevasses pinched me in at the top of the first ice bench with 140cm of unconsolidated, glacier chilled snow on ice. Very good powder skiing.


Pole probe and Odessey Arena in the background, smothered.


And of course, snowpoles at sunrise this am.

[BillyFromTheHills]

Great VT...glad you had a good time. Thanks for the pics!

[SoulMan]

<<snip>>Just have to say that the thread title is a bit of a downer. <<snip>>>

I loved it in that Warren Miller movie when it was either Rob Deslauriers or his brother Eric calling the "boss" from their car on the way to Valdez, and coughing into the phone about having the "Valdisease" or some ailment. I've done that myself, but it was a migraine that powder day, or a sore back, or something else equally lame.


Oh, and thanks VT for the stoke.

[Valdez Telehead]

A bit of a ski drought occurring with high winds and low wind "shills" making things err…glaciated. Winds will continue to build through tonight then ease off by Monday and allow some skinning and pedal hop tribulations.

Red flagging at sunrise today…

A couple 7'ers produce lenticulars.

…

Whispys over Mt. Francis. Moon over Sugarloaf

[Valdez Telehead]

High winds gave way to calm and clear today. Wind jacked surfaces, but found some nice runs with dust on hard slab and some nicely textured surfaces in spots. Helmet, knee pads, and a self-arrest pole were a good idea.

Polalanche..


I just skied this last week, but not today. Should be good with some fresh snow, which is not in the forecast.



I though I heard some water and baled out of this terrain trap. It appeared to have collapsed some time later. It's the small stuff that could screw up a ski day.

[JustinB]

It's the small stuff that could screw up a ski day.

Such as an incompletely frozen beaver pond?? (It was one of the more humrous self depreciating posts ever)

[tele.skier]

Great pics VT, Thanks!

[Valdez Telehead]

The beaver pond debacle. Green minty sumos with raineys and a ladder.

With skiing fair, why not tour around and get snowpack info along with some Chugach style views.

Deep cracks on snowdrift above the trailhead.



Pitted only as deep as the frozen snowpack would allow with a metal shovel, about 12" in undisturbed snow. OF at the trailhead and 25F 2000' higher under Catchers Mitt.

.

Hazardous, mainly icy skiing in the upper elevations, so milked out a long low, angle run on noisy neve.. Not much sun as solstice nears. Orange ski at noon, no snow soon.

[BillyFromTheHills]

[QUOTE=Valdez Telehead;5529]

The beaver pond debacle. Green minty sumos with raineys and a ladder.]

Do tell.....