Quick report
Detailed routes and some pics are at my Strava feed. But for an overview of the snowpack conditions with a focus on West Side access: Friday, Cog ascender’s left below the utility line had zero snow, and ascender’s right often required hugging the shadow line of the trees, as well as skinning (and skiing) over various non-snow substances. Utility line was adventure skinning, and descending required many stretches of sidestepping, snowplowing, and then straightlining with the desperate hopes of dumping speed on what appeared to be solid snow patches. Sunday afternoon, Cog ascender’s left was barely even skinnable, and the utility line almost immediately became a rock garden. Monday morning was a complete transformation for the Cog, although anyone tempted by the siren song of the untouched powder on skier’s right paid a price in ski(/board) damage. By Wednesday mid-day, the usual wind-scoured sections were becoming bare again, both on the utility line and descender’s left below that. Still easy to ski to the car, but attention and caution required. Despite the overall low snowpack, Burt skied quite nicely, both Friday and Wednesday, with a noticeable snowpack gain there from Friday to Wednesday. When I entered Burt on Wednesday a little before noon, all the snow was definitely still dry, as would be expected from its aspect, but that must have changed even by early afternoon. Some of the recent loading there could have been significant enough later on for wet slab hazard as per the bulletin, and although the avalanche size would be small, consequences would be magnified by the runouts into dense trees. The new snow was almost entirely absent on the north and west aspects of the summit cone and the flats immediately to the northwest along the Cog, which matches up with the recent wind directions, and also indicates that the wet snow lower down on Sunday must have far drier and hence available for transport throughout the entire storm cycle. Northeast Snowfield was in very good condition, and the snow was definitely still dry when I skied it at around 10:30. Definitely wet snow though when skinning and then hiking back up to the summit along the TRT with its south/southeast aspect.