Mint Valley/Lonesome Mine

Quick report

Skied to 3,900 ft. in drainage in vicinity of Lonesome Mine, outside the forecast zone. Temperature: 33 in parking lot according to car, around mid-20s at our high-point. Precipitation: Light but constant precipitation whole day, in form of very fine graupel at lower elevations and snowflakes up high. When we skied down about 1400 snowfall rate increased to moderate, and about 3-4 inches had accumulated at 3,900 ft. at that time. Wind: Frequent flagging on ridgelines in the zone whole day. We were touring in sheltered areas and only felt light wind, but as we started skiing back around 1400 the storm rolled in more with sudden decrease of visibility and increase in winds to 10-20mph. Snowpack: From 2k to 3k feet snowpack had very poor structure as identified by pole probes, with an easy-to-feel slab of denser snow on top of weaker facets. In that elevation band there were areas with a delicate crust in the first few inches of snow. From 3k to 4k feet snowpack was lightly wind affected, and a little variable. From pole probing, some areas had a slabby strong-over-weak structure. Other areas felt like a mix of snow and crusts, and others felt like old windslabs on top of older windslabs. The terrain above 4k ft. was, for the most part, very scoured and wind affected and did not look like pleasant skiing except in leeward features. We did not get any signs of instability, nor dug any pits. We kept terrain choices more on the mellow-end on account of poor snow structure, uncertainty, and the fact that much of the terrain in this particular valley is complex or extreme.