Following the Right Track

[highpeaksdrifter]

When at a ski area I'm unfilimiar with, I often follow others' tracks to try to find the goods. Like many here I've done it countless times.

One time stands out in my mind for some reason. It was March 2001 and my oldest son, daughter and a friend went to Smuggs for a long weekend. Friday night we got about a foot and a half on top of a great base.

Saturday morning we where ready to hit the "Back Bowls" we had heard so much about. Getting info on where to find the goods was like pulling teeth. On guy told me if I didn't already know I didn't belong in there anyway. Nice fella.

We finally got some general directions and followed a small group that looked like tree eaters. The came to an opening that already had several sets on tracks in the already deep powder and down they went. So I'm jazzed to follow them.

My son sees one set on tracks traversing across into seemingly thicker trees, too thick. He says that guy has no clue or he's the only one who does, lets follow those. It didn't look good, but I say what the heck.

After traversing for about 5 minutes looking for where he dropped in I'm thinking we let go of a sure thing and should back track cause the trees where to thick to enjoy. Finally things open up and we see where he starts his run. We had nothing but fresh pow all the way. Trees where spaced just right and the best treat was coming to a stream bed that was snowed in and skiing that for a ways.

It was my best weekend of the year and that was my best run. If we had gone the first way it still would have been great, but we would be skiing over others tracks.

How about you guys? Track following that ended good or bad.

 

[Grassi21]

every time i follow a set of tracks i find yellow snow... :-?

 

[deadheadskier]

How old was your son at the time being that this is 8 years ago we're talking about? I wouldn't classify the skiing back that as all that difficult, but a wrong turn can put you on top of several hundred foot high cliffs. Not being a parent, I supposed I don't know what I would find to be an acceptable age for taking a child back there. I'm not questioning your decision, I just never recalled seeing young kids back there.

Then again, some of the footage this past winter of Jspin and his still almost toddler was pretty amazing.



Back on topic. I'll throw in a negative one. It was at Smuggs this past winter. I had for years heard of a couple of good shots in the slot between Sterling and Madonna. I took the skiers left trail from the summit and where it turns back towards Madonna with the big fence and great view of Stowe, I didn't see tracks, but an obvious 'trail' heading out to where I wanted to go. I had gone in the woods a bit lower down the hill early in the snow was essentially an unskiable manky mess. This was 5 days after the huge storm of February and it was 60 degrees. The snow didn't have enough time to settle and corn up, total sludge. I decided to go anyways and I found two six foot wide cut chutes both which had melted out to now have 8 foot mandatory drops, which were probably at one point just steep snow. The landings offered maybe 8 feet to check speed before quick traverses into the rest of the run.
It was a hassle getting out there, I wasn't heading back and essentially had to climb down trees to get around the drops and then trudge through extremely tight tree lines in the crap snow. Completely SUCKED

Even in good snow, the two shots I found would probably only be alright for the first 2/3 skiers down on a blower day. HOWEVER, the experience allowed me to spy some very short, but totally sweet lines that would be easier accessed from the Sterling side traversing back towards Madonna. Those now sit tight in my memory with anticipation and as soon as Smuggs does something about their crap lifts, so I decide I want to return; I know where I'm going first if the snow is good.


great thread

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

How about you guys? Track following that ended good or bad.

Following others tracks can be a bad thing if you don't know the lay of the land and you can easily get cliffed out..I don't recommend it..I've had people follow me into narrow woods who didn't know what they were getting into and ended up stuck in a gully or trashing their skis by taking the wrong line.

 

[campgottagopee]

Very similar story here as HPD's----one spring break while in college we hit Smuggs/Birthday Bowls. We knew how to get there and the obvious lines just not where the "good stuff" was. We'd gotten 8ish of fresh so back we go----just before we got to where we thought we wanted to go we came across a single track that dropped in early w/ a hard travers skiers right. Without hesitation we followed and several minutes later we came to a blown in stream bed that provied freshies all the way down.....ramping up the side putting up blower was truly great fun.....we lapped that thing the entire day.

How old was your son at the time being that this is 8 years ago we're talking about? I wouldn't classify the skiing back that as all that difficult, but a wrong turn can put you on top of several hundred foot high cliffs. Not being a parent, I supposed I don't know what I would find to be an acceptable age for taking a child back there. I'm not questioning your decision, I just never recalled seeing young kids back there.

When I worked there we had to beat feet to get there before all the punk JR racers

Following others tracks can be a bad thing if you don't know the lay of the land and you can easily get cliffed out..I don't recommend it..I've had people follow me into narrow woods who didn't know what they were getting into and ended up stuck in a gully or trashing their skis by taking the wrong line.

Thanks for the obvious captain

No sense of adventure this morning??

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Thanks for the obvious captain

No sense of adventure this morning??

It's about safety not being a goober following peoples tracks..

 

[campgottagopee]

It's about safety not being a goober following peoples tracks..

Whatever, cause people who get cliffed out jump, right???

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

How old was your son at the time being that this is 8 years ago we're talking about? I wouldn't classify the skiing back that as all that difficult, but a wrong turn can put you on top of several hundred foot high cliffs. Not being a parent, I supposed I don't know what I would find to be an acceptable age for taking a child back there. I'm not questioning your decision, I just never recalled seeing young kids back there.

He was 26, a big strapping young man and an exprt skier.:grin:

 

[deadheadskier]

He was 26, a big strapping young man and an exprt skier.:grin:

I'm sorry, but for some reason I thought your children were still below High School age. I'll refrain from an old guy joke here.

 

[campgottagopee]

I'm sorry, but for some reason I thought your children were still below High School age. I'll refrain from an old guy joke here.

Nuff said ;-)

 

[snafu]

Didn't happen to me but 2 friends followed some tracks out of a hiker's cabin at the top of Killington, took a wrong turn somewhere and were lost for 4-5 hours, sh*ting their pants until they popped out of the woods just in time to go home. I need to know where I am going to end up before I commit to something like that...

 

[OldsnowboarderME]

I'm sorry, but for some reason I thought your children were still below High School age. I'll refrain from an old guy joke here.

More than one would appreciate your kind gesture. :lol:

 

[severine]

I'm sorry, but for some reason I thought your children were still below High School age.

I thought the same, actually. You're not the only one!

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

if i want to do backcountry exploration, i'll take the time and effort to be social and meet some locals. not only is the end result safer, it's more rewarding and memorable.

just following some idiot's tracks into the woods isn't something i'll do.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

.

just following some idiot's tracks into the woods isn't something i'll do.

times two

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I'm sorry, but for some reason I thought your children were still below High School age. I'll refrain from an old guy joke here.

That's ok, I was 20 when he was born, 40 when my youngest was born with a daughter in between.:grin:

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

if i want to do backcountry exploration, i'll take the time and effort to be social and meet some locals. not only is the end result safer, it's more rewarding and memorable.

just following some idiot's tracks into the woods isn't something i'll do.

I did try, I was polite as could be. Tuff crowd at Smuggs, they didn't want to give it up.

I did the same thing at Abasin once off the back of Palavachni. You're right about the saftey thing, that was a little more fool hardy. I wasn't worried at Smuggs, but maybe I should have been.

Another memorable one was skiiing what they call the Arp at Cormier in Italy. Cormier is lame compared to it's neighbors, but that was pretty cool and just outside the map. Didn't know where we'd come out, but we ended up taking a bus back.

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

following unknown tracks is like the opening of a dicken's novel..."it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" I've had some fantastic runs off into the uncharted and some fabulously ugly runs...fountunately there have yet to be any tragic experiences. At the end of the day, if you don't go, you'll never know...sometimes your best run of the season waits just around the next ridge.

 

[bigbog]

...

every time i follow a set of tracks i find yellow snow... :-?

1+

...lol..lol..
To be honest, nobody's crazy[foolish]?? enough to lay tracks where I go some of the time...they're not on the normal map of advanced/expert resort skiers, but that's ok.

 

[riverc0il]

following unknown tracks is like the opening of a dicken's novel..."it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" I've had some fantastic runs off into the uncharted and some fabulously ugly runs...fountunately there have yet to be any tragic experiences. At the end of the day, if you don't go, you'll never know...sometimes your best run of the season waits just around the next ridge.

Great post and sums up my experiences pretty well. There are few things worse than having followed a sucker track deep into the woods, well past the point of no return, and getting that "this guy had no clue and I just followed him" feeling. But sometimes you score big as well.

My general M.O. is if the unknown track is within boundaries or between trails and the topography looks good, it is almost always a go. Outside the boundary, if it is within a slack country perimeter and will definitely lead back (eventually) to the base area, then likely a go. Heading away from the area, I am always much more tentative and I have bypassed many good looking shots, especially if skiing solo.

I will say that I know my home mountains like the back of my hand from experimenting with or without tracks to follow. You gotta keep pushing the boundaries of your mental map until you extinguish all the possibilities. The suck runs are worth it in the end once you have a place completely mapped out. A lot easier to do at a home mountain and a lot more risk involved of ruining your day at a place you don't know well.