Conditions Report
Report from January 17th, 2019
Brought to you by Squaw Alpine
Today was a bluebird powder day at Squaw Valley, CA.
The snow was light, dry, and hit me in the chest and face a lot.
A lot.
Squaw reported 25″ of new snow in the previous 24-hours this morning.
We started the day on KT-22 and the skiing was superb.
There was still the odd icy patch that you had to be wary of, but they were mostly predictable.
After 4 laps on KT, we headed to Headwall just as it opened.
Headwall skied long, wide-open, and fast.
From Headwall to Granite Chief.
Granite was surprisingly fun.
Despite being pretty tracked by the time we showed up, we found good snow, fun drops, and the Granite Kicker.
From Granite out to Broken Arrow and that was our favorite run of the day with decaying, golden granite all all sides.
We ended the day on the KT-22 and Olympic Lady chairs in fun chowder.
At the end of the day we found out about the tragic avalanche that took a life and seriously injured another.
We are devastated by this avalanche and send our best to all involved as well as their loved ones.
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Sorry I didn’t see that post. Please remove my comments
Snowbrains Loves posting about human death. They also love reposting, the actual article on the avalanche death have been pushed back and although it is still available to read, it looks like snowbrains is trying to hide the information.
Just don’t get it confused, when some poor soul dies, Miles is FOR SURE going to post about it.
Thanks for the comment, Cesar. One of the most effective ways to learn how to avoid avalanches is to study avalanche accidents. We studied many avalanche fatalities in my AIARE Avalanche Level III certification course. SnowBrains is dedicated to avalanche education and always will be. I also highly recommend the “Accidents in North American Climbing” by the AAC if you’re looking for a broader mountain learning experience. Thanks again, Miles.
Is Squaw paying you guys to not write about the avalanche fatality at Alpine? Pretty suspicious that every other time there is an inbounds death you post about it but not at Squalpine?
This report illustrates so well why I love Squaw and Snowbrains. Fantastic report, fantastic skiing. Especially loved the “Time Out”. Showed humility in amongst the super human stuff! Way to go Miles!
Thank you very much, Markie 🙂