Day(s) Off: Ritter Range

We took advantage of the unseasonal weather, healthy snowpack, and a few days off to squeeze in a quick overnight ski tour. 

Unbeknownst to some, the Ritter Range is part of the ESAC forecast area, and is seldom visited until the springtime. Our motivations were personal and we did not go out to make focused observations, but we still wanted to share what we found. Overall, the conditions were favorable for efficient travel. We found a similar buffet of surfaces to the East Side, including pervasive wind effect, melt-freeze crusts, transitional snow and recrystallized powder (near surface facets). On solars with enough coverage that have been through weeks of melt and freeze, we found surfaces that resembled legitimate corn snow.

Short days and long nights left something to be desired, but low sun angles meant that most aspects had adequate covergae, and moving around was generally easy.

Depth: We did not dig or take focused measurements, but snow depths seemed deeper than nearby East Side zones, which makes sense being West of the true Crest

Surfaces: Variable

Avalanches: We observed no signs of instability during our tour. It seems that every slope steep enough to slide did infact during the most recent cycle on 1/4-1/5, as signs of old, large natural avalanches were everywhere.

*Notably absent in this area is the 1/1 rain crust, which is widespread up and down the East Side.