Quick report
Travel today was up Red Pine, skiing a NW facing bowl first in the morning while it was still dry, then moved on to N facing White Baldy 11,200ft, and finished up with the Lake Shot E-NE facing. The snow had dried out with a cold clear night last night and was non wind affected on all aspects. The lack of any wet activity even on the SE and E was do to cooler temperatures dry air and a breeze keeping the snow surface cool. The only wet activity noted was on the W facing at mid elevation, and all aspects at lower elevation. I was a bit surprised to be skiing dry powder at 3:00pm on the E-NE Lake Shot but you’d be surprised how long medium density powder mixed with allot of graupel and a cool breeze can last in the waning days of March. We did note what looked to be a skier triggered avalanche from yesterday on a E facing slope at about 10600ft. Easy travel in dry snow in the alpine was counter balanced buy the low elevation exit which was a lesson in suction cup snow at its finest. High N will still be dry in the AM but getting there my be a mix of icy then damp travel.
photos: skier triggered avalanche from yesterday, another avalanche on the backside of White Baldy which is kinda hard to see and dry snow on E-NE at 3:00pm
Snowpack
Red Pine ended up with about a foot of medium density powder mixed with quite a bit of graupel from the weekend storm, I was surprised at the lack of wet activity in the alpine, basically there wasn’t any until reaching lower elevations where all aspects were damp.