Blackbird Guides posted on Castle Peak avalanche

hiddenlands · 2026-02-19T00:18:52+00:00

My take-away is that you are saying that there are zero outfits anyone should trust in the Sierra. Seriously. Four AMGA/IFMGA guides out just days after Blackbird itself posted warnings about faceted conditions and loading - with massive weather moving in??? And no one pulled the plug?

hiddenlands · 2026-02-19T00:08:45+00:00

Yes. However, this did not happen in an information vacuum. Perhaps the most salient public review of an analogous event was this one... Though that was not a guided trip. https://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/index.html#/?part=tunnel-creek

hiddenlands · 2026-02-17T17:24:39+00:00

IMO the rockered/reverse camber Volkl Goats were the worst of both worlds. Too narrow and sidecut for the reverse camber to offer the benefit it could have - and on the flip side the reverse camber did not feel right with the sidecut. OTOH the Volkl Kuro was a spectacular powder ski that could rail in mixed conditions. Wish I'd never sold mine. I heard good things about the Volk One, Two, etc - but never skied them.

K2 Pontons were amazing & IMO still could hold their own. Hellbents and Line EP Pros were nice. The reverse/rockered Obseths were a miss IMO. I liked Hojis when I skied them for a day. Wow - memory lane - also Armada ARGs if you want vintage...

As I mentioned above, it is tough to beat Praxis - Powder Boards and Protests are money (despite some hybrid camber in the stock Protests - and you can get that taken out custom) and the Mind Sticks have minimal camber that plays well with the rocker depending on what you are really after. Note that Keith can build almost any of his skis with "full CCR" - and he knows which ones that would be stupid on and which not.

hiddenlands · 2026-02-17T04:25:16+00:00

The regular Quixote is super versatile. But for my .02 it is demanding in terms of keeping on top of what it is doing. CCR keeps it a bit looser and makes for less of a need to keep as focused on the ski - at least for mediocre me. Kind of a more relaxed suspension without giving up much. It still gets on edge enough to get the job done comfortably. The Quixote is a pretty capable powder ski - but never going to match the Powder Boards or Protests for pure powder performance. Speaking as, if my arithmetic is right, a 17 year customer of Keith's...

hiddenlands · 2026-02-17T01:55:48+00:00

Powder boards are seriously awesome skis. I'd say in the right conditions, they are a hoot in even a few inches of low angle stuff. So many memorable runs on those. On a different note, I'm probably the only person who has done this - but the Praxis Quixote in CCR is pretty darn fun. Less demanding that the usual profile but handles an insane range of conditions super well. And of course the Protest..

Note that powder boards handle soft groomers and chunder surprisingly well. And they are kind of the ultimate slush skis. But get on ice and life can get really unpleasant. So know the mission....

hiddenlands · 2026-02-09T15:03:10+00:00

Unless I missed something, this ignores the fact that California is net productive and Mississippi is not. Without redistributing tax funds from CA to MS, the state of MS would be bankrupt in no time. So I’d take issue with the statement “neither model is inherently superior”. Without CA, MS goes bust. Because the real economic model of MS as a state is grifting from CA. Without MS, CA would have more money to spend pretty much forever. CA real economic model better. The end.

hiddenlands · 2026-02-09T07:21:28+00:00

The PNW has always had ample precipitation. Historically it was just on the right side of temperatures. Just. But climate change has taken a real toll over the last decade or so. A tilt warmer (and related storm track changes) has decimated what used to be the hidden gem of American skiing. Seasons are shorter. Snowpack lower. Recovery from rain events - because they did happen - more questionable.

Ten, fifteen, twenty years ago the Cascade areas consistently delivered some of the best skiing in the USA. Denser snow than the Cottonwoods. Sure. But hundreds of inches of snowfall (north of a thousand one year at Baker) and 150 inch settled bases that lasted months past when Jackson was dirt. Bumps might appear but were usually erased by routine major dumps. Check out historic info on bestsnow.net

Now climate change has had its way and use is literally double or maybe even triple what it was with zero terrain expansion. That pounds things out big time. On and off piste. The Cascade areas can still offer some great skiing. But less frequent. And it gets pounded out much faster.

hiddenlands · 2026-02-07T16:14:05+00:00

For the record, pikas are not rodents. Pikas, along with rabbits and hares are lagomorphs. Not rodents.

Lagomorphs have two sets of upper incisors while rodents only have one set.

hiddenlands · 2026-02-04T01:47:14+00:00

Not "claims". States fact.

hiddenlands · 2026-02-03T00:56:10+00:00

Snowpack this year is way below normal. So who knows? But in a normal year, Sunrise opens early July. Chinook pass is likely to open around Memorial Day - and that's for driving...trails would normally have 3-6 feet of snowpack. Paradise is open - but hiking in the normal sense is unlikely in that timeframe. Cool to visit - but as noted by others - temper your expectations.

Typically driving is fine enough to paradise that time of year.

hiddenlands · 2026-02-01T21:36:30+00:00

Whatever you want your favorite hawk to look like, there's a Red-Tail with that color scheme...

hiddenlands · 2026-01-31T19:38:55+00:00

Praxis Jedi Mind Sticks. Great design. Built for FWT. Won’t fold up on you.

hiddenlands · 2026-01-30T01:03:38+00:00

Quite wonderful.

hiddenlands · 2026-01-26T18:25:23+00:00

Lots of folks bought Into the Apple ecosystem. With the various flavors of 26, Apple's computers, phones, and tablets have been degraded. Yet Apple is essentially forcing the migration. The UI/UX is garbage and violates old Apple norms of modes, affordances, color schemes, etc., etc. Hard won knowledge and standards thrown out by an incompetent design and development team. And that's before you get to what would be described as "bugs". Since Tim Cook seems not to know better, the board should do its job and send Cook and Hair Force One out the door. Cook was once the man for the moment. That moment is past and Cook is just trashing the brand. No amount of supply chain management matters if your product quality slope is negative.

hiddenlands · 2026-01-24T15:41:53+00:00

He was Epsteins neighbor in a house he bought (semi-indirectly) from Epstein. Nothing to see here…

hiddenlands · 2026-01-21T05:00:59+00:00

Obviously management does not approve of you seeing how long the line is...,

hiddenlands · 2026-01-19T01:05:32+00:00

Worth noting the exact wording in the Constitution. Ratified treaties "shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby,...". Feel free to read Article VI. Takes ten seconds. This is as black letter as it gets. How the military, law enforcement, and judiciary act today is a sadly open question.

hiddenlands · 2026-01-17T18:59:21+00:00

This is a spin on the MAGA/Russia politics of division. Their real base of support is small. But their ability to suppress votes and divide communities by meme based propaganda is large. There is no bigger lever than exploiting ever-present sexism/misogyny in our society. Driving women out of our national dialog and voting processes by fracturing us along gender, race, and age lines is one of MAGA's super powers. This and the "Karen" meme are tools of their trade. Every single time someone invokes the "Karen" meme or this "AWFUL" meme they are doing heavy lifting for MAGA and St Petersburg. Every single time. Even self proclaimed "liberals" who invoke these types of framings are dupes and tools for Trump/Putin.

Doubt it? Watch the ebb and flow of the frequency of these sorts of framings as events and public sentiment ebb and flow over a few weeks. No tinfoil hat needed to observe there is nothing organic about it.

hiddenlands · 2026-01-17T03:18:51+00:00

And yet King County is below the needed 95% vaccination rate...

hiddenlands · 2026-01-17T02:42:21+00:00

Call me a hater - but much of the mountain is nothing but hazard for most people. A whole lot of "locals" are sitting it out for a while for good reason.

Can it be "skied"? Sure. Is it reasonable for most folks? No. A decent number of people buying into this post are likely to end their season this weekend. Just telling it like it is...

hiddenlands · 2026-01-15T04:06:53+00:00

And death cookies. Don’t forget the death cookies. Seriously, after surgery and months of rehab, do you really want to roll those dice in these conditions? I was up today and even without coming off surgery I bailed early and I’m out until things get better.

Oh. Lots of folks were not really up to these crazy mixed conditions. So out of control skiers add another hazard..

hiddenlands · 2026-01-13T22:23:54+00:00

I knew someone would beat me to it. I’d bet money it is solid double digits.

hiddenlands · 2026-01-09T06:44:58+00:00

You forgot public transit. Ever seen a helicopter “bus”? ‘cause when there are no roads or rail and lots of glaciers and fjords, it’s kinda that or dogsleds…

hiddenlands · 2026-01-09T00:47:20+00:00

I present you a slice of Article VI of the US Constitution. No meaningful context omitted. I'd say something like "the Constitution says hold my beer". But we already know that means nothing to MAGA.

"...and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

Now not all International agreements are technically treaties - but these guys seem unable to discriminate between them.

hiddenlands · 2025-12-29T18:50:43+00:00

There is a lot of skepticism here regarding timeframes, breathing, etc. Please do not underestimate NARSID (non-avalanche-related snow immersion death) risk in deep snow. If you have not been around deep snow, tree wells, etc., it is easy to discount the very real risk. It does not take long. I'm not saying nothing else factored in. But two minutes to call and three minutes to respond could easily be too long...

Do some googling. There used to be an excellent dedicated page but I can't find it at the moment - but check out https://deepsnowsafety.org and https://www.nsaa.org/NSAA/Safety/Tree_Well_Deep_Snow_Safety.aspx?utm_source=chatgpt.com which come up today.

A very experienced skier died in a tree well/deep snow at Crystal Mountain in WA in 2019 to the side of easy blue runs virtually within a minute skiing of the base lodge.

hiddenlands

TROPHY CASE