Draft Dodger Ridge and Pineapple Pass

I took a quick trip up the Alpental Valley to Draft Dodger Ridge and Pineapple Pass to get one last feel for conditions ahead of the windy weekend.

As I approached Pineapple Pass, I found subtle wind-loading had already occurred. Textured surfaces, a drifted in skin track, localized cracking, and stiffer surface snow were all clues that the wind had been a player recently. On Draft Dodger, the typical convex rollovers looked to have been wind-loaded at some point.

There were also plenty of holes and rocks to manage throughout my travels. Getting from Great Scott Bowl into No Fog was a harrowing effort with no shortage of holes.

Overall, there's plenty of low-density snow available for transport this weekend, travel is improving but still below seasonal norms, and we have a messed up and unconventional PNW snowpack. 

The skin track up Big Trees was a little wonky, but that's life in the Valley, I guess. But the skiing was great.

I got some localized cracking as I re-established the skin track up to Pineapple Pass.

The upper snowpack continues to be generally weak, comprised of low-density snow, facets over a crust, and interspersed weak grains such as near-surface facets or surface hoar.

I did not find the 2/13 at the top of Draft Dodger Ridge today (NW 4916'). However, facets were found above the 2/7 crust. A PST on this layer resulted in a slab fracture 39/100. It did not propagate the fracture to the end of the block upon breaking vertically.

The 2/7 was down 38cm. ECTX