Whipple

My partner and I skied the whipple for the first time, after having looked down at it almost ten years ago and just being gobsmacked that something like that could exist and then learning that people ski it. There were three groups who had set out for the objective in the morning. We were the last but caught the first two about a 1,000 ft from the ridge due to their excellent trail breaking, which really made our trail following quite easy. While we followed a group of three and the group of two went a different way, but we all arrived at the entrance--mostly--together. I/we/"Whipple 2" felt really good that all three groups took a moment to talk about their plan and make a plan togeather: Whipple 1 was going to punch out and find Waldo, ski down to BCC and figure it out when they got there, Whipple 2 was going to gain the ridge to the gentle SE facing bowl and go out Neffs, and Whipple 3 was going to boot back up the couloir. W1 skied and notified W2 when it was safe and W2 did the same for W3. For W1/W2 and likely W3 the Lisa Falls report was fresh on our minds. So, for all those involved thank you for posting: we did better by ourself and each other at least today because “you” were willing to share.

I am concerned seeing peoples reports of what could be the most traumatic experience of their lives, written in the heat of survival and potentially shame, reposted on all these Wasatch social media feeds with...commentary. This system works because people—but mostly men—feel both responsible and safe enough to communicate their failings. I think people’s observations, especially of incidents, should be treated more respectfully, so people continue to feel comfortable sharing, so that we can continue doing better.

Today my partner and I along with W1 gained the ridge via a side shoot. It whomped almost the entire way--we beleive on the crust and not the grapple layer. Nothing seemed to be happening, but it made for a very spooky moderate. I don’t feel especially bad about our decision to get out that way; however, my partner and I regained the ridge after skiing the gentle south face and we had a choice to ascend through a gentle glade or get back on the ridge. We go onto the ridge, which cliffed out and we were immediately back in whomph alley, which we justified by the fact the we had already done the slope test with our lives, but then in whomphed a few times on our second ascent and it felt like risk for no reason. Not all poor decisions end up in mea culpas and life-flights.

The only cracking we saw was on a very steep east facing rollover. The gentle SW slope exhibited no signs of instability. I measured HS220 on a 9600 ft SE slope. We had fantastic riding condition across the compass.