Gorge 15km

Drove up to the main parking area at 14km, road is in good condition at least that far. We skinned up along the quad road and up through the trees. There was about 5cm of fresh dry snow in the parking lot at 1500m, in addition to the 30cm+ from the previous few days. Early season hazards were fairly well covered, we had to cross one creek that wasn’t fully covered on the way up and down, but other than that we didn’t encounter any sharks or snow snakes. Boot penetration during transitions was up to the crotch in most places and ski penetration when we stepped off the established skin track was about 15-20cm. Snow depth was about 110cm at 1700m on a semi sheltered ridge top. The weather wasn’t particularly warm or cold, it was cloudy for most of the day with only brief glimpses of blue sky, and there wasn’t any wind that we could feel or observe. We could see evidence of warming including quite a few tree bombs/roller balls, especially on more open solar aspects, but they all appeared to be a day or two old. We observed a bit of wind effect along the ridge top but didn’t feel anything that felt slabby. From the brief glimpses we got the alpine looked pretty filled in but still a bit thin. The snow in the trees was soft and deep. Sluff was minimal, although we also didn’t ski anything that steep. The snow on more exposed and solar aspects weren’t quite as nice as the sheltered polar aspects, but it was still very good all around (especially for November)