Who has done Corbet's and what was your experience?? - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

Never been open when I was there.  I would like to think I would, don't know till I would get to the lip, a lot might have to do with who I am there with...to push me. 

You recon' it's comparable to dropping in a 20 foot halfpipe from the top?  I know it's a bigger drop. but then skis are more stable than a skateboard at that speed.

As much as you ski I can picture you doing it pretty easily.  I would hit a big air jump or do a heli off a smaller one long before I'd drop in something that's over 20 feet and gnarly crud when you land had have to get em turning.  I'm such a wuss in my old age..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

Never been open when I was there.  I would like to think I would, don't know till I would get to the lip, a lot might have to do with who I am there with...to push me. 

 I'll be right behind ya saying......."Trust me"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trekchick 

 

 

 I'll be right behind ya saying......."Trust me"

 

So, TC.

All this should give you the final incentive you need to schedule a trip to JH.

You come visit... I'll go into Corbet's with you.

Schedule your trip for the last week of February.  That's the best time for plenty of snow and historically fewer people.

You know you want to do it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Peters 

 

So, TC.

 

All this should give you the final incentive you need to schedule a trip to JH.

 

You come visit... I'll go into Corbet's with you.

 

Schedule your trip for the last week of February.  That's the best time for plenty of snow and historically fewer people.

 

You know you want to do it.

I will most definitely put this on my to do list!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philpug 

Never been open when I was there.  I would like to think I would, don't know till I would get to the lip, a lot might have to do with who I am there with...to push me. 

Reminds me of a moment with my lovely wife on our first trip to Vail in February. As we took the chair up Blue Sky Basin, I looked down and to the left over the cornice drop  to Lover's Leap. Leaned over to my honey and said, "You first." Now that's true love.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by deliberate1 

 

Reminds me of a moment with my lovely wife on our first trip to Vail in February. As we took the chair up Blue Sky Basin, I looked down and to the left over the cornice drop  to Lover's Leap. Leaned over to my honey and said, "You first." Now that's true love.
 

Giving her first tracks is the ultimate sacrifice, I hope she realizes how lucky she is to have someone like you. I am verklempt just typing this. 

Phil, my wife would respond that marrying me was the "ultimate sacrifice." And I am kvelling down to my kishkas just typing that.

Never done Corbett's, never will. It's great to ski to the headwall, check it out and then traverse back to Rendezvous Bowl.

I have vivid memories of standing at the jump-in point and watching people trying to summon whatever it takes to jump in the first time. Typically, they look at it for a long time, and, then look up to others standing around. I'd never seen fear in the peoples eyes until they glanced up. Something I'll always remember. 

I truely think that with a jump like Corbett's, the longer you stand there looking at it the less likely you are to jump, or to stick the landing if you do jump.  The tendency is not to become more calm and confident the longer you check it out.  Because of the steep landing and the need to land perpendicular to the hill, it usually requires either a 90 degree turn in the air going straight in or a jump turn off the left wall if you take the traverse entrance.  Unless you do that kind of thing on a regular basis (and who does?) then you probably need to take a moment to visualize what you will be doing, and then do it.  If you stand there for very long it gives you too much time to think about negative consequences, which generally does not lead to good results.

Any way you look at it, it is a big jump, and not the kind of thing most of us would remotely consider doing if it wasn't "Corbett's."  There is a very large "I fell down Corbett's Club," but all those folks had to overcome exactly the same fears as the ones who pulled it off.  As they say, it doesn't take any skiing ability to throw yourself off a cliff.  Corbett's remains one of the biggest on-area head trips for good skiers, and it's nice to know it's there even if you never jump it.

I seem to recall Tommy Moe was said to have ridden a snowmobile down Corbetts one Spring after the closing date. any truth to that?

As far as the trepidation, fear of anything can grow in your mind.  Looking at the thing objectively, it is less steep than any number of routes around Mt. Washington and the drop is not huge or at least was not when I was there. I'm sure that if the landing and the chute is hard and icy that it can be very difficult and dangerous but dropping, landing and skiing a thing like that is well within the skill level of many people here I'm sure. I have the same kind of fear regarding jumping into cold water for some reason. Some of the swimming holes around here and the places people jump from are insane in my opinion and far more dangerous and the kids who do it are not what you would normally think of as bright lights. Fear is both a protective mechanism and an irrational limiting phenomenom I believe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oisin 

I seem to recall Tommy Moe was said to have ridden a snowmobile down Corbetts one Spring after the closing date. any truth to that?

 

Don't believe it was Tommy, but it was Shad Free.
 

http://www.skinet.com/skiing/2004-01/free-rides-corbets

Phil,

Let's schedule a repeat trip to JH for next year.  

We'll help push each other over the edge.   And if all else fails, we can just take our skis off, get on our butts and slide down together!   Hopefully Bob will be there to take a photo of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fireball 

Phil,

 

Let's schedule a repeat trip to JH for next year.  

 

We'll help push each other over the edge.   And if all else fails, we can just take our skis off, get on our butts and slide down together!   Hopefully Bob will be there to take a photo of it.

It is on the calender. Same bat time, same bat station. I think we are going to stay in town at the Elk River this time. 

Somewhere I have a few photos.   One where I am standing at the top looking in and contemplating how long it's going to take to clean my shorts.  The second one I am airing off the second rock right about where you brake out of the cliff.  The day I dropped in the light was really flat and I had the misfortune of watching a snowboarder rag-doll the entire thing right as I was pulling up to check it out.  It gave me the willies.  I was about to chicken out entirely when a group of local high school racers showed up and dropped in on 223 downhills.  That shamed me into skiing it. 

It looked a lot different when I dropped in.  In this picture it looks like you can basically keep your feet on the snow if you drop in on the skiers left.  That's where I dropped in but it was a double drop.  You had to drop about 6 to 7 feet to a ledge and then another 6 to 7 feet to the goat trail.  The landing was so hard on both of those that I actually saw stars.  What's so intimidating about the whole thing is that you have no idea how fast it is going to be when you hit and your options are very limited.  If you take the standard ski in line like I did, you end up on the goat trail which is like a massive GS rut that goes directly under the cliff and it is really fast.  When you get on it, you kind of think you can relax, but then you realize that you are heading straight into the opposite wall at what seems like 60 mph.  If you keep carving around you will quickly become graffiti on the wall, so you have to throw them sideways and do a hop turn from a sideslip. 

From that point on I had some of the most enjoyable turns I have ever experienced.  The conditions were like skiing in the path of a slab slide.  I think I described it to my friends as an etchasketch.  I don't know exactly what created this effect, but the snow slid with you the entire way down, but not like an avalanche.  The snow was grippy and fun to turn in, but it was still soft.  The sliding snow would pretty much erase your tracks as you skied down. 

When you're standing at the top, the snow is windblown and hard packed.  You poke your pole a  little ways down and it's like teflon.  You jump in feeling like you are committing suicide, and then it's bliss.  If I ever get the chance to ski it again, I will get more creative on the drop in.  There was a way that you could adjust your line so that you land just to the left of where the goat trail starts.  It's scary because your shoulder would be almost hitting the left wall while you're dropping, but you land where everyone else has pushed the soft stuff.  It would feel a lot better and would actually probably be more manageable than trying to land on the goat trail. 

Anyway that was my experience.  That was probably in 93.  Hard to believe it was 16 years ago.

As an after thought, I'd like to know if anyone here has or knows someone who has dropped into OS.  That's the other drop in that you can see from the bottom looking up to the left of Corbet's.  It's like a mandatory 50 feet drop to something that looks about as wide as a hot tub.  You can't turn for about 30 feet or more after you land because the rocks are right there.  I met a guy up there that had done it and I think Doug Coombs did it.  I'm sure that the list of folks who have done it wouldn't fill up a page.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huck 

As an after thought, I'd like to know if anyone here has or knows someone who has dropped into OS.  That's the other drop in that you can see from the bottom looking up to the left of Corbet's.  It's like a mandatory 50 feet drop to something that looks about as wide as a hot tub.  You can't turn for about 30 feet or more after you land because the rocks are right there.  I met a guy up there that had done it and I think Doug Coombs did it.  I'm sure that the list of folks who have done it wouldn't fill up a page.

Isn't that S&S Couloir you mean?

Yes, and There are brown stains in my long johns to prove I did it.

 Hey that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fireball 

Phil,

 

Let's schedule a repeat trip to JH for next year.  

 

We'll help push each other over the edge.   And if all else fails, we can just take our skis off, get on our butts and slide down together!   Hopefully Bob will be there to take a photo of it.

Fireball,

For planning purposes, Jan 17 to 23, Jan '10 is the week of Gary's condo rental. Finndog and I are in. I'll take the pics of you and Phil jumping into Corbett's.

Yes, you're right.  As soon as I posted it I remembered.  Brain fart.  S&S.   No idea what that stands for.  It looked so narrow that you could get your poles stuck in the rock on the way down if you weren't careful.  JH is one of a kind.  Long live the Mangy Moose!!!

I believe S&S are two guys names, but I don't remember who.  (Sort of anonymous fame, I guess.)

Apparently its been skied switch, believe it or not.  Kinda unimaginable to me.

S&S is Simms and Sands.  There is also the M&M which is Miller & Miller.  You can see Ron Miller hitting that the first time in Swift Silent Steep this fall. 

So if you drop both in the same day, is that S&M?  Couldn't resist.

And when you've finished, will you have lost your quiver ?? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huck 

So if you drop both in the same day, is that S&M?  Couldn't resist.

 

Sorry, 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huck 

As an after thought, I'd like to know if anyone here has or knows someone who has dropped into OS.  That's the other drop in that you can see from the bottom looking up to the left of Corbet's.  It's like a mandatory 50 feet drop to something that looks about as wide as a hot tub.  You can't turn for about 30 feet or more after you land because the rocks are right there.  I met a guy up there that had done it and I think Doug Coombs did it.  I'm sure that the list of folks who have done it wouldn't fill up a page.

As others have said, it's S&S, not OS.

It's been measured at 30 to 35 feet, depending on how much snow has built up in the landing.

I did it - once - in Feb of 1986, after a very big, windy snowstorm.  Back then, you were supposed to have permission from the ski patrol (which I did) to go in there.  Now, it gets poached somewhat regularly if the conditions are good.  I practically hyperventilated while standing in that little notch getting the nerve to go.  I finally did go off, landed in very deep snow that brought me to a stop, and skied away. 

End of story.  I never did it again (and have never wanted to).

The list of people who have skied S&S is actually very long.  It includes boarders and at least one (that I know of) guy on tele skis.  It doesn't get skied a lot in any given year, but it *has* been skied a lot over the last 40 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Peters 

 

As others have said, it's S&S, not OS.

 

It's been measured at 30 to 35 feet, depending on how much snow has built up in the landing.

 

I did it - once - in Feb of 1986, after a very big, windy snowstorm.  Back then, you were supposed to have permission from the ski patrol (which I did) to go in there.  Now, it gets poached somewhat regularly if the conditions are good.  I practically hyperventilated while standing in that little notch getting the nerve to go.  I finally did go off, landed in very deep snow that brought me to a stop, and skied away. 

 

End of story.  I never did it again (and have never wanted to).

 

The list of people who have skied S&S is actually very long.  It includes boarders and at least one (that I know of) guy on tele skis.  It doesn't get skied a lot in any given year, but it *has* been skied a lot over the last 40 years.

 

 

My hat's off to you Bob.  That drop looked a lot bigger than 35 feet.  It also didn't look like there was any way you would stop.  I have been looking for my old pics.  I'm pretty sure my girlfriend at that time snapped one from the bottom looking up.  I thought the S & S was in the shot too.  If I find it, I'll post it.
 

Do you know Eric Prouty?  He holds a mythic status for me due to his exploits in Warren Miller.  He made one GS turn and went straight off of Corbet's.  The first time he went so big that the camera guy didn't even get him in the shot.  He had to go back around and do it again.  He was a Jackson guy before he came to Vail.

I'm curious what kind of experience the JH ski patrol has in assisting people down at the landing site if they need help. How do they get down there? Rope in? How often do they get called there for support? Is payment for services many, many cases of beer?