Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
With all the recent new snow, we took advantage of the easy access that Ski Bowl offers. In general, the new snow fell on bare ground on much of the lower mountain at this location, so early-season hidden hazards are abundant. Once above 4500 ft, the snowpack grew significantly deeper, and trailbreaking was much more laborious. The new snow appeared to be settling out quickly, but we still managed to find reactive wind drifted snow in exposed locations near ridgetop.
If you do head to the ski areas for early-season tours, be sure to check in on their uphill travel policy.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 32
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 4000
- Recent Snowfall
- 75 cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
The start of the tour at 10 am felt somewhat warm and moist and the fickle November sun even made a couple quick appearances on this side of the mountain. The snow line was sitting right at the base of ski bowl (3600 ft), so the new snow was quite dense at this elevation. Once above 4000 ft, the new snow felt lower density and the moderate SE winds productively drifted the new snow.
Snowpack
The snowpack around Ski Bowl was noticeably shallower than locations further east, like Bennet Pass and White River. The recent upslope storm did not favor this side of the mountain, however, we still did find good ski quality and travel above 4500 ft.
From the trailhead at 3600', we observed about 55 cm of recent storm snow. At this elevation, new snow fell on bare ground. Around 4500, the snowpack grew significantly deeper and more layered. At 5000 ft, we measured an average HS of 130 cm and roughly 70-80 cm of new storm snow resting over a crust that was buried in mid-November. At these elevations, we generally found a favorable, right-side-up structure and unremarkable test results. Any instability we found was confined to wind-loaded pockets.