Warm & Windy

<p>We skied SE facing aspects. The first loop at about 11:00 the snow was very light but by the second loop at 11:45 it had already absorbed a lot of heat from the sun and was becoming very heavy. The wind was howling at about 7700 feet from the North over the ridge we were on. There was about 15 cms of fresh snow on top of the sun/wind layer but hard to say how much of that was from yesterday’s snow versus wind deposit. We measured a base of 150 cms at about 7500 feet Coming down you traverse an open South Facing steep section (~33 degrees) at 5900 feet. Snow pinwheels already started rolling down from the sun. They were starting from where the rocks were exposed by the snow. (See photo #2 for the traverse section) </p>

Terrain Ridden

Open trees, Sunny slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Snow Conditions

Powder, Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Warm, Windy.