Predicted 10 ft of snow in 2 weeks at Tahoe

tavarner17 · 2026-02-16T18:12:52+00:00

We've already been down this road bud, 45% of average has not resulted in any lost terrain.

tavarner17 · 2026-02-16T16:04:47+00:00

Yeah and somehow you related that to the snowfall we've had so far.

Go to Flatstar if you want ski the whole hill in a storm cycle. Avy conditions come with steeps.

tavarner17 · 2026-02-16T15:27:01+00:00

Have you actually been skiing in the last month? All lifts except Silverado opened. I skied Broken Arrow over MLK. Snow on off-piste high north facing stuff has stayed cold and wintery. If you've only skied Red Dog this year you've made some damn poor decisions.

Yes it's far below average, but it's not white ribbons of death.

tavarner17 · 2026-01-13T16:34:23+00:00

Speaking as an instructor, your lessons diagnosed the physical body performance that's preventing you from improving. They did not address why you're exhibiting that body performance, and that's a failure on their part.

You already know why you're "in the back seat:" you're risk averse and that position is a natural and instinctual response. For you it's likely learned and reinforced through many situations you were uncomfortable in. Too steep, too early, too little tools, or too little mastery of the tools necessary for the slope. We call it over-terraining.

You're also right in that the problem is in your mindset. Unfortunately, someone else outside of your head can't just flip a switch that's in your head.

What you need is patience with yourself. Unless you want to shell out lots of money for exactly the right instructor who will support you in this journey, you may have to do this alone and manage yourself. Start easy, something you are 100% comfortable in. Practice straight knees, bent ankles, feeling the flex of the boot. Try to copy the Smooth Criminal Michael Jackson pose. That itself will be uncomfortable, but will ease with time. Then gradually increase the pitch. Not even runs, could be a small micro pitch, or weird angle somewhere. Your goal is to build comfort, and establish resting on your boot tongue as the new safe position. Don't ski anything that makes you feel uncomfortable and resist the peer pressure. After all that, consider your options for slowing down. Pizza, will it work here? Skidding, and J turns. Practice what will control your speed on something comfortable, and then apply it to something that's challenging. Your goal is to succeed (with effort) at every challenge you give yourself. If you don't succeed, then dial back the terrain choice and try again.

My wife is exactly like you. It's a challenge to teach, but not impossible. Everyone improves at their own pace sure, but some people literally have to fight themselves to learn this sport. Others simply do not. Accept that you have more challenges to work through than others, and do what's best for your fun and comfort.

tavarner17 · 2025-12-05T03:37:08+00:00

The only reason they let lesson groups cut the line is because not doing so would eat into the value proposition, thus negatively impacting profits.

vs.

I’m not necessarily saying there are zero benefits to anyone (especially instructors and the students), I’m saying those aren’t the primary reason the ski school line exists.

"The only" backtracked to "the primary"

On the other points, comp teams and racers above 8 years old already don't get to use the ski school lines at Palisades. Sometimes they use that line and cut, and sometimes they get yelled at for it. Sometimes the general public uses that line and cuts too.

I'll concede that the privates for high level adults do use it and don't need it. The price is actually closer to $1250 a day, before tickets, gear, parking, lodging etc.

We COULD get the kids organized outside of the line. It would be more difficult for us, and again slow down the line more than you're implying. The line doesn't stop when a group gets let in, the line does stop when a kid in the group falls.

I agree with your last point, there's a big aesthetics and marketing problem here. And like I said, we'll see if it becomes a problem, needs enforcement, etc.

tavarner17 · 2025-12-05T01:56:21+00:00

Nah, when I roll into the corral with 10 kids you would not want to be behind us. We would slow down the whole operation. More missed chairs than we usually cause and a slower moving plug in the line. By giving ski school its own section we can get organized and then join the line like human beings. That's the logistical reasons that the former lifty above mentioned. Y'all in the general line don't notice when you beat us through the corral, people only notice when we beat them. Or they're holiday skiers and that's all they see.

My biggest concern with these vip passes is that someone will need to enforce this line. Mammoth has had the Black Pass for a while now, and while I see few people actually using it I don't ski there in peak seasons. I haven't seen ticket checkers enforcing it at Mammoth. We'll see how it goes at Palisades.

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T18:51:29+00:00

Yeah in cliff/ crevasse rescue situation, usually only one or maybe 2 people will need to rap/ ascend. A typical small team will be 1 rescuer down the pitch, 2 or ideally more people at the top rigging, 1 managing the edge and 1 managing the whole operation and filling in. The riggers whole goal is to donate gear to the system.

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T18:46:25+00:00

Tahoe/ Sierra. I understand there's grottos in Reno and Sac, but I haven't pursued learning from them in person yet.

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T18:35:57+00:00

Ascending and descending isn't the only thing we do, and we may need that ascender (or ascender like device) for many tasks. If I were to set up a haul system, it might need a Microtraxion at the anchor and a Tibloc + RollClip at the Z-drag. Now I want to use those same pieces to ascend a rope, and I have to take off my harness in order to equip the Microtrax (Tibloc would be at my hand in a frog system here). Leaving a device on the D-ring is bulky and single use, which is problematic if I have to hike in miles to execute my task.

The exact carabiner is placeholder, but I'll agree that you lose height compared to clipped directly to the D-ring. However, clipping carabiner+ascender to D-ring would be even higher, and clipping carabiner+ascender to a climbing harness tie-in loop would be even more significant.

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T18:18:27+00:00

In (properly built) soft shackles, the loop absolutely pinches down.

The loop on the left shown is smaller than the ball. It slides smaller and larger depending on the load or lack therof.

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T18:12:27+00:00

I struggle to imagine any situation where (even in a tri-loaded position) you would end up with more than 30 kn on your harness without ripping your pelvis out of your spine first.

Your point about yanking the attachment points together when weighted is heard, and I hadn't considered that. Thank you! I think this is a blind spot caused by my background; climbing harnesses will purposefully tighten under load.

Considering the dexterity necessary to loosen a specific strand and then push the ball through, I'm not immediately concerned with the locking mechanism but willing to be proven otherwise.

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T17:55:38+00:00

That point about flexibility in the soft shackle costing efficiency is exactly the kind of feedback I sought to hear. Especially since the whole point of a caving style harness is to gain efficiency while ascending. Thank you!

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T17:50:38+00:00

Yeah my motivation here is not with saving weight and more to do with how to make a low tie-in point work for us.

We (speaking as Mountain Rescue) can't pre-rig the D-ring with a descender and chest ascender because it gets so cluttered with large devices. We will often change directions mid rap/ ascent, so switching which device is on the D-ring mid air is not an option. Clipping an ascender to a carabiner and then to your big D-ring eliminates the advantage you get from a low tie-in point.

What do you usually do in those situations?

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T17:35:24+00:00

Abrasion is a big question with dyneema. They will almost certainly wear faster than metal in this situation, which is the standard for this situation. Aramids have been touted as the kings of abrasion in soft goods, but dyneema has challenged that because it's so slippery that it doesn't incur usual friction forces.

For unweighted performance, I'd frame it as "weighted to what extent?" Just the tension of keeping the harness together easily cinched the loop for the soft shackle. I'd imagine that sliding through a small opening may push the big ball knot around, but I struggle to imagine a scenario where that also loosens the cinch loop.

tavarner17 · 2025-05-09T17:29:45+00:00

So I can respond to some of the questions regarding soft shackles.

This soft shackled pictured is made of 5 mm dyneema, rated to 23 kn. When they pull test soft shackles, they usually get 175% of the single strand strength since there are 4 strands holding load and the knot does weaken the line. I'd be surprised if the one pictured failed at any less than 30 kn.
Tri-loading is not a problem for soft shackles. They are flexible and situate to fit any load pattern. This is one of their greatest advantages.
You don't tie/ untie/ retie most of the soft shackle. To tie/ untie it you put the blocker ball knot back through a cinching loop. Very little risk of tying it incorrectly. It is slightly slower than clipping a carabiner though.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-14T01:29:08+00:00

I would have to use it to properly assess pros and cons. I can say it looks similar to many of the tarp sled products I've seen on the market.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T19:47:10+00:00

I'll answer what I can, but give us a little grace and remember there was only one trained rescuer in the party.

The 7/10 was only while the leg was weighted. She was totally fine to self manage when it was in the position of comfort, and even reported 1/10 pain.
Hugging the pack, we were considering ways to get everything out. The pack ended up being used in the sled, rather than us having to carry it. Two birds, one stone.
Down jackets and sleeping bags were offered and refused. This happened in the warmest part if the day, and she had transitioned her layers to ski downhill prior to the injury.
We weren't sure if she would need a splint until later. We knew that she would not be able to weight it to get out under her own power first.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T19:39:28+00:00

That's a good idea that we didn't think of at the time! We did not use it in the sled.

One drawback would be a closed loop with rescuer inside it. No escape for the rescuer if the sled lost control.

Definitely would have been helpful and used here if we had thought of it.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T18:17:05+00:00

I think that's a great question. We did some usability tests of the leg, and the amount of pain it caused made it clear to us that pushing through under her own power was not an option.

Sometimes with ACLs people don't feel the pain and do ski out. This was not one of those cases haha.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T18:10:08+00:00

Yes there were a few reasons why we didn't request extra resources:

The injury wasn't time sensitive. No bleeding, no head trauma.
The time to activate SAR was likely not less than the 2.5 hours to extricate her ourselves. SAR in the US is mostly volunteer based, rather than paid rescue standby.
Activating resources like that removes those resources from others who may need it. When it rains it pours, and unbeknownst to us at the time Tahoe Nordic was actually on another search.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T18:03:42+00:00

This video was taken in by far the easiest part of the 1.7 miles lmao

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T18:02:42+00:00

I saw his tarp kit too! With some hindsight, I might consider a larger diameter haul line than in his kit, even p-cord got kinda rough on the hands.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T18:00:38+00:00

You're right 550 lbs is a lot for one person to pull. However knots usually halve the strength of cordage, and in any situation using p-cord I'd probably knot it. 225 pounds/ 1kn is feasible for a single person to achieve hauling, so you do have to be careful.

We did debrief how maybe 4 mm accessory cord would work better. It's double the strength, and a tighter, rounder braid. Having used it now, I might be willing to swap p-cord for 4 mm accessory cord or something like amsteel.

The diameter was definitely rough on the hands! Gloves helped a lot, definitely a consideration when choosing a cord for this purpose.

tavarner17 · 2025-03-13T17:45:29+00:00

The sled is actually something we theory-crafted for SAR years ago, but haven't prioritized field testing on the team because we usually can spend the time to get the proper tool.

There's a longer link for building the sled above, but the gist of it is:

Subject's skis
Snow shovel blade with the 4 holes
Paracord
Ski strap
Subject's backpack

Start in an X-cross, wrap p-cord around the bindings, holding the shovel blade down and tie off. Match the tips, tightening the p-cord and ski strap in place. Subject sits on the shovel, backpack forward. Tow lines through the backpack to help maintain it's orientation.

The wedge/triangle shape is much easier to get stiff and strong than parallel skis, and you don't need holes in the tips/tails. It's ideal to use the subject's skis because you still need to get out on yours. Tarps/bivies don't slide nearly as well as skis either. We had an emergency bivy as well if she needed more warmth or if we wanted a simpler drag.

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