Quick report
Went out to Kwolh yesterday, figured we could stay in the trees if necessary for some protection from the wind. The sled out there was pretty sporty, we were breaking trail for part of it, easy to lose that trail when it’s untracked. Got out there and the snow was… weird. Skinning up in the trees it’s usually pretty consistent after a storm, this time it varied from being stripped to the crust, to a foot of new. Same thing on the face. It was clear the wind had done a number out there, aside from really whipping the other day, it was from a non-typical direction, so made for some interesting conditions. We found the best snow on the edge of the face right by the trees, where it was about 8” of pretty consolidated pow over the crust. We were on powsurfers, and this was just barely enough to make it rideable. Made a few turns strapped in and that snow actually rode great in regular snowboard mode. Despite the wind effect, we didn’t see any signs of instability, just variable depth. No cracking or slabbiness. We didn’t go off the very top where it usually gets the most wind effect. Couple of hazards noted, first is that it’s still thin coverage. On the skintrack the back of my ski fell partway into a deep lava hole. I had a similar incident a couple weeks back but while riding down, and actually fell in that time. This time I didn’t fall in, but it was a deep hole. So something to keep in mind that typically isn’t as much of an issue this time of year. The other thing that happened was my powsurf leash failed when I fell off at one point, and the board just rocketed straight down the hill and into a tree. Fortunately nobody else was out there! We found the board fortunately, it made a big gash in a tree, and the front binding popped off and pucks got moved, and the board was in its two ski halves. But other than having to readjust the pucks it seemed fine. So many hazards to keep track of these days aside from just avy conditions! 😱