Dead Dog climb w/ Tuning Fork Ski/Snowboard Descent?
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seekanddestroy99
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Re: Dead Dog climb w/ Tuning Fork Ski/Snowboard Descent?
^^^ yeah, ascended standard route but skied the Dead Dog.
Re: Dead Dog climb w/ Tuning Fork Ski/Snowboard Descent?
The northwest couloir is more mellow than dead dog. Both are steep enough to produce some fall potential. Dead Dog is a more serious ski undertaking though. If there is enough snow to ski back down the ridge(standard ascent route) to the saddle between Grays and Torreys you might want to do that. Then you could descend the face beneath the saddle back down into Steven's Gulch. I do not know if there is enough snow to ski on the upper part though it would be the easiest ski descent if it was in. The pitch angle would be around 35 degrees(I would guess) and it is more wide open. I imagine this area sees alot of wind and gets scoured to the ground quite frequently. Dead Dog and the Tuning Fork are both more classic(and probably more dangerous as well).
You could always climb Gray's instead and descend the north face directly off the summit back down into Stevens Gulch instead. This is a pretty nice, classic descent that is more mellow than either of your proposed routes. It is still avalanche terrain(like the other descents) and I have seen multiple slides in the springtime there.
I have ridden all these routes and the Tuning Fork is my personal favorite. It is not quite as steep as Dead Dog but it is almost twice the vertical. It is a big classic line. Make sure if you do it you descend down the summit a hundred feet or so to the northwest before entering the couloir. There is a much steeper and more technical northeast face that drops sooner off the summit of Torreys, it sounds like you might want to avoid this line. Its pitch angles are more similar to Dead Dog(45-50 maybe). The Tuning fork is only about 40 degrees.
Here is some avalanche info(these are generalized season specific statements) on these lines. I have not been in the area yet this year. Both Dead Dog and the northeast face of Torreys recieve a very early sunhit so they get unstable very early in the day(often 9:30am or earlier). The north face coming down off Greys and the saddle between it and Torreys recieves early sunhit as well(This face has a slight east facing tilt to it). All these slopes for the same reason come in to a spring snowpack earlier than the tuning fork. The northwest face of Torreys(tuning fork) recieves a late sunhit so wet slab instabilty tends to take longer in the day to become an issue. For this same reason winterlike slab instabilty persists much later in the season here though. I have not been up there recently though so I do not know what exactly is going on with the snowpack. Someone from 14ers.com did ski Dead Dog recently though.
Also it might be easier to climb the ridge from Loveland pass over Grizzly peak to Torreys summit and then pick your line from there depending on time of day and your stability assesments from the top. I believe it is a shorter approach than skinning from Bakerville right now. If you go to my website and click on the Torreys peak icon you can see a trip report I posted from riding the Tuning Fork last season. http://www.zachtaylorsnowboarding.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . Good luck and have fun!
You could always climb Gray's instead and descend the north face directly off the summit back down into Stevens Gulch instead. This is a pretty nice, classic descent that is more mellow than either of your proposed routes. It is still avalanche terrain(like the other descents) and I have seen multiple slides in the springtime there.
I have ridden all these routes and the Tuning Fork is my personal favorite. It is not quite as steep as Dead Dog but it is almost twice the vertical. It is a big classic line. Make sure if you do it you descend down the summit a hundred feet or so to the northwest before entering the couloir. There is a much steeper and more technical northeast face that drops sooner off the summit of Torreys, it sounds like you might want to avoid this line. Its pitch angles are more similar to Dead Dog(45-50 maybe). The Tuning fork is only about 40 degrees.
Here is some avalanche info(these are generalized season specific statements) on these lines. I have not been in the area yet this year. Both Dead Dog and the northeast face of Torreys recieve a very early sunhit so they get unstable very early in the day(often 9:30am or earlier). The north face coming down off Greys and the saddle between it and Torreys recieves early sunhit as well(This face has a slight east facing tilt to it). All these slopes for the same reason come in to a spring snowpack earlier than the tuning fork. The northwest face of Torreys(tuning fork) recieves a late sunhit so wet slab instabilty tends to take longer in the day to become an issue. For this same reason winterlike slab instabilty persists much later in the season here though. I have not been up there recently though so I do not know what exactly is going on with the snowpack. Someone from 14ers.com did ski Dead Dog recently though.
Also it might be easier to climb the ridge from Loveland pass over Grizzly peak to Torreys summit and then pick your line from there depending on time of day and your stability assesments from the top. I believe it is a shorter approach than skinning from Bakerville right now. If you go to my website and click on the Torreys peak icon you can see a trip report I posted from riding the Tuning Fork last season. http://www.zachtaylorsnowboarding.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . Good luck and have fun!
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BillMiddlebrook
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Re: Dead Dog climb w/ Tuning Fork Ski/Snowboard Descent?
Excellent advice!taylorzs wrote:If there is enough snow to ski back down the ridge(standard ascent route) to the saddle between Grays and Torreys you might want to do that. Then you could descend the face beneath the saddle back down into Steven's Gulch. I do not know if there is enough snow to ski on the upper part though it would be the easiest ski descent if it was in.
"When I go out, I become more alive. I just love skiing. The gravitational pull. When you ski steep terrain... you can almost get a feeling of flying." -Doug Coombs
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atalarico
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Re: Dead Dog climb w/ Tuning Fork Ski/Snowboard Descent?
All of this has been excellent advice! I like the saddle shred idea.BillMiddlebrook wrote:Excellent advice!taylorzs wrote:If there is enough snow to ski back down the ridge(standard ascent route) to the saddle between Grays and Torreys you might want to do that. Then you could descend the face beneath the saddle back down into Steven's Gulch. I do not know if there is enough snow to ski on the upper part though it would be the easiest ski descent if it was in.
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Pivvay
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Re: Dead Dog climb w/ Tuning Fork Ski/Snowboard Descent?
Did you guys climb Dead Dog?
Chris Plesko
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atalarico
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Re: Dead Dog climb w/ Tuning Fork Ski/Snowboard Descent?
Sadly we did not.
Instead we did Parnassus and Bard. It turned out to be quite the adventure on the way down, as the snowpack is absolutely terrible (we were post-holing using snowshoes). We lost the Bard Creek trail around treeline and ended up bushwhacking down to I-70 and hitched back to the trail head. I almost cracked my skull wayyyy too many times for comfort.
However, the South face of Bard is completely in for a ski/snowboard descent.
That being said, Tuning-Fork looked like it wasn't completely in to the summit (about 300 feet or so short of the summit). Someone had messaged me saying they were going yesterday, so look for a TR.
We might go for Torrey's next week though.
Instead we did Parnassus and Bard. It turned out to be quite the adventure on the way down, as the snowpack is absolutely terrible (we were post-holing using snowshoes). We lost the Bard Creek trail around treeline and ended up bushwhacking down to I-70 and hitched back to the trail head. I almost cracked my skull wayyyy too many times for comfort.
However, the South face of Bard is completely in for a ski/snowboard descent.
That being said, Tuning-Fork looked like it wasn't completely in to the summit (about 300 feet or so short of the summit). Someone had messaged me saying they were going yesterday, so look for a TR.
We might go for Torrey's next week though.
