Quick report
Joe and I toured up the Tilly Jane trail to see the north side of the mountain after the recent clear and warm weather. It was immediately clear that the warm-up had melted out significant portions of snow cover on the trail below 5,500 feet. Any snow that had been spared was firm and swiss-cheesed with frozen footsteps.
We were able to skin up to our high point just above 7,000 feet, however, there were sections where all that we had between us and the dirt was the 1 inch of snow that had fallen before we arrived. On the descent, we had to remove our skis and board to navigate a few sections of bare and rocky trail below the Tilly Jane hut.
We chose to stick to lower angle, non-exposed, terrain due to the slide-for-life firmness of the surface.
To quote the nuanced avalanche professional, Joe Dellaporta, "that was really bad."
Weather
- Air Temp
- 31
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 2,800'
- Recent Snowfall
- 3
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
31 degrees and light to moderate snowfall at the Tilly Jane trailhead in the morning. Snow fall decreased to light throughout the day and then stopped around 1pm. No wind.