Taos Avalanche Center

[JBella]

Some of the TSV patrollers are forming an avalanche center! Their site isn't live yet as of December 1, hopefully we'll see it online soon!

http://taosavalanchecenter.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKRzn15R_7I

[Bob]

Very cool. Do you know any of those guys? I might be interested in talking with them.

[JBella]

I know who some of them are, hence I see some potential for something positive here - if egos don't get in the way. The website is now live, I hope they are looking at it as a work in progress and understand the intent of constructive criticism; it could be cleaned up and organized a bit. To me it seems like an e-debris field of information that was tossed into a martini glass and shaken, not stirred. The map shows the Columbine Hondo as a wilderness study area, alongside the pre-2015 Wheeler Peak Wilderness boundary - not to say that political boundaries really matter when regarding snowpack conditions, yet to provide a public service, information should be current and accurate. An important fact to consider towards the development of a formal avalanche forecasting entity specific to our locale, and a reason I described it as such, is that the Columbine-Hondo region (north of the Hondo River) and Wheeler Peak / Williams Lake region (south of the river) are two different geologic areas. During the past decade I've learned these two areas usually have very different snowpacks and conditions are rarely significantly complimentary from one side to the other due to how the geology and orographic effects influence the various localized climes. Bull of the Woods and Frazer Mountains are almost a third distinct area which extends to the northeast around and beyond Red River. Each of these zones contains several independent avalanche paths, most are known and some are speculative (to the extent that we can know for certain) based on physical potential and existence of or lack of evidence of activity in recent history. It's great that some individuals are taking the initiative to organize a formal avalanche center, I hope the local and extended communities show interest as has happened with NNMAE, and that this venture is successful in providing the specific public service as intended.

[JBella]

Also there is an issue of mislabeling line names - when Rj and I skied over to the Ring Finger on November 30th, we saw a pit site at the top of the Pinky and two ski tracks descending that line. the TAC posted an observation report on the 29th labled Ring Finger, yet the RF was clean and fresh on the 30th. I think they think the Pinky Trib is the Pinky and down the line as such. The Ring Finger is the large, open and prominent line with rock outcrops at the top. Maybe some of the ski patrollers have a different perspective on that area, I'm going on what I learned from some old timers in 2008, and what most of the people I know who regularly tour in this area call the chutes and have for years. At least some of TSV's patrollers are getting out into the backcountry regularly and beginning to learn this area from a local perspective.

I made a hasty map to clarify the chute names*

*note - Craig's Line is informal, I'm calling it that because a good friend who skied that line often has moved to Idaho this year. Maybe it'll catch on! I'm willing to bet he has climbed and skied more vertical gain in this area than anyone else since Tim Harter left this side of the Universe.

_MG_6562.jpg (124.46 KiB) Viewed 2171 times

[Bob]

Well, the strength of nnmae is the community/user involvement and input, the weakness is, in my opinion, that there isn't enough hard data like pits and obs.

If the Taos guys are going to do a lot of data, but are interested in supporting a forum and/or community input, maybe the two sites could be brought together.

Just thinking.

By the way, that's a great picture above. I should think of some way of archiving/displaying it as a reference, along with Savickas' pic of the Nambé cirque.
http://www.imafirst.com/NambePanorama2.jpg

[scotthsu]

I noticed two upcoming Avalanche Awareness talks to be given by the guys from Taos Avalanche Center:
Jan. 25 at Taos Mesa Brewing and Feb. 3 at Santa Fe Brewing (both free).