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TR:SoCal_Corn_Blue_Balls

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:31 pm
by 406

Jan, 19 2009
Original plan was to take the devils backbone to baldy peak and ski the bowl. Friend forgot his crampons, so we decided to do the ski hut trail.
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First views of the Baldy bowl and we lost all motivation and decided to go to the ski area lifts, hoping to find some soft backcountry off thunder or telegraph.
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Made a run outside the ski area boundary down the east side of thunder. A few turns on corn, but mostly ice.
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It was a steep scramble out:
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Made a few run on resort. Only two of the runs off the Thunder Mt lift had good enough conditions to ski, despite the good coverage and warm temps.

Hopefully Baldy is making money from the snow play/tube crowd.
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Still hoping to find some backcountry corn we took another run and didn't find anything very good.
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If conditions are better this would be fun:
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Finally decided to skin up closed chair 4 because things looked thin but soft. And how many times can you ski the same 2 lift served runs?
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While taking our skins off at the start of the Devils back bone, I watched a lady slip and just about fall face first down the almost blue ice covered north slope near the location of the red dot in the photo below:
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I asked her about it when she got to us and she didn't seem rattled...I guess ignorance is bliss. She did mention that snow shoes would be nice and I said I think you want crampons. Although they wouldn't work with her trail running shoes.

Evidence that even lame stuff can be interesting if sequenced:
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Where did that come from?
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Hopefully we get more snow soon!

Re: TR:SoCal_Corn_Blue_Balls

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:49 pm
by EnFuego
Looks like you guys put a lot of effort into looking for some fun snow to ski.

I really like the sequence shot. How did you do that? If you don't mind releasing any secrets.

Also, the 8th pic, where approximately was that shot?

Re: TR:SoCal_Corn_Blue_Balls

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:56 am
by 406
EnFuego wrote:Looks like you guys put a lot of effort into looking for some fun snow to ski.
Yeah, always hard not finding good snow, but it was nice being out.
EnFuego wrote: I really like the sequence shot. How did you do that? If you don't mind releasing any secrets.
It is really easy if you have photoshop or the free version that I use called gimp. If you have 3 images, pick one as the base and put next image in a new layer and align it to the base image. Do the same for the third. Use the select tool to draw a selection of the element you want to keep from layer 2. Inverse select and cut. Do the same for layer 3. Use various tool to "clean up" transitions.
EnFuego wrote: Also, the 8th pic, where approximately was that shot?
That is from a few hundred feet down the east side of Thunder mt, looking south at Telegraph peak.

Re: TR:SoCal_Corn_Blue_Balls

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:23 am
by EnFuego
Thanks for the 411 on the sequencing shots using gimp. I actually have that shareware program on my computer, but never use it. Didn't think it was worth the space it's taking up on my computer. I'm glad now I haven't deleted it yet.

Whenever you get a momment, could you try to "highlight" that face on Telegraph Peak that you show in your 8th picture? I'm having a hard time finding it. Looks like it might be a good place to go explore during the next cold spell. Maybe I'll take my snowboard and invite you and your skiis. Could be fun. We'll see if we can out run the rock fall.

~EnFuego