Taos 2/5 - 2/10 2023

[MarzNC]

Here I am on top of Kachina with my instructor. . . .

Does that name tag say Rick B.? If so, you are in the same group as a couple of my friends. One from DC and one from NC. The man from NC is a first-timer to Taos.

 

[Benny Profane]

Yeah, it's Rick. Total character, like most of them. He's loud.

 

[MarzNC]

They're called Gazex Exploders. As I understand it, they ignite a mixture of propane and oxygen. They've been used for a long time in the Alps and ski areas in the States are now adopting them instead of ordnance.

The Gazex Exploders were installed in 2019. Unfortunately that was after the fatal in-bounds avalanche off Kachina Peak in January 2019. The initial plan was proposed in 2016.

I was at Taos soon after that avalanche. The avi debris field was huge. Came very far in the area where people unload Lift 4.

Kachina Peak post-avalanche after part of the debris field groomed out, Jan. 19, 2019

August 2016

TSV considers new avalanche control for Kachina Peak

Taos Ski Valley (TSV) may install propane-ignited “exploders” near the top of Kachina Peak to improve avalanche control. The U.S. Forest Service is currently accepting comments on the proposal, which

www.taosnews.com

"
TSV would like to install Gazex, an avalanche mitigation system, near the summit of the new Kachina Peak lift. The system would include five “exploders” along the ridgeline, four of which would sit above the K Chutes. A mixture of propane and oxygen is piped to the exploders, which can be ignited by radio, cell phone or cable.

“The detonation of the Gazex system produces only carbon dioxide and water stream, creating a gaseous shockwave capable of releasing an avalanche,” a scoping letter prepared by the Forest Service said. “Neither waste nor noxious gas is discharged into the environment during the process.”
. . ."

 

[Benny Profane]

 

[Benny Profane]

There are a LOT less trees around TSV than a couple years ago. There were major wind bursts in January 2022 that took down big trees all over the mountain. Have you noticed the piles of brush in most of the tree areas? Some of the tree areas that look like glades this season were much tighter last season. The clean up effort was immense. A year ago, many of the tree runs were closed not because of lack of snow but because of too much dangerous deadfall.

Yeah, there's a big area that's just stumps just out of bounds. Must have been awfully hard work to clear.

 

[MarzNC]

@Benny Profane : what were a couple of your favorite black runs? Only one I saw your class do was Street Car at the end of the first lesson when Rick was talking about pre-turns. Besides Main Street off Kachina Peak, did you do any double-blacks as teaching runs?

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Btw, I have a cold.

Den why arend do wriding like dis?

 

[raisingarizona]

There are a LOT less trees around TSV than a couple years ago. There were major wind bursts in January 2022 that took down big trees all over the mountain. Have you noticed the piles of brush in most of the tree areas? Some of the tree areas that look like glades this season were much tighter last season. The clean up effort was immense. A year ago, many of the tree runs were closed not because of lack of snow but because of too much dangerous deadfall.

We get crazy wind on our mountain here in Flagstaff. There's been a lot of tree thinning over the last 8 years or so to open up the glades skiing opportunities. Interestingly the more open spaces have made more trees susceptible to being blown down. There's root systems weren't developed for the increase in wind volume and were based around having lots of trees around for protection and structure. There's that and drought conditions and beetle kill don't help either.