Blue skies and Moderate ratings encourage boldness. Remember to inspect the snowpack regularly and make smart terrain choices. Well supported and sheltered terrain will offer good skiing.
Lots of variability on these windslabs. They are isolated at treeline and below, but more reactive in shallow, previously cross loaded areas.
Nothing new was seen today.
The overnight temps were in the -20's last night (Thursday night) and kickstarted the surface faceting and surface hoar growth. The top 20cm is low density and offers good skiing in treeline areas. In valley bottoms the surface hoar is growing, up to 10mm in places. Our trip today was near Purple Knob. We only travelled up to treeline, but noticed a variable depth snowpack. In many places it was only 60-80cm with a poor base. In the deeper areas the midpack was solid feeling with some noticeable buried windslabs.
We're on a roll. Another nice day is expected tomorrow, although the morning will be chilly. -18C as a low and -8C as a high. Alpine winds will increase slightly, but for the most part they will be calm down low. And of course the trade off for blue skies is no new snow.
