Quick report
Overall, things felt pretty stable. Besides some small sluffing, we didn’t see any or trigger any recent avalanches. We were extremely surprised about not running into any wind slabs at ridgeline on the Lakes Basin Crest. From the car to the summit, we experienced changing conditions. Down near Lake Mary and Lake George, winds were strong with intense blowing snow. As we climbed above TJ Lake, the wind became light. Even when booting the chute the wind was light. Once topping out the ridge became moderate, but not a lot of snow transport.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 35cm
Moderate to heavy snowfall. Winds becoming calmer at higher elevations.
Snowpack
We did not dig a pit, but performed a few small hand sheer tests that showed anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of new snow. 6 inches at around 8700 feet on a north aspect. And 12 inches above 10,000 feet on a north east aspect. Luckily, we did not experience any collapsing or shooting cracks, we also did not witness any wind slabs which was unexpected. During the descent in the steeper sections, we experienced some dry loose sluffing. We summited around 5pm at 11,000ft. Skiing was awesome!