Quick report
Skied the Comma off Stevens today, and found excellent, soft surface conditions. The couloir itself, from 10k to about 9600’, held 10-15 cm of faceted surface snow on a very supportable base of rounds. Wind effect was minimal on this slope and pretty much all slopes even above tree line. The only places with obvious wind hardened surfaces were right at the crests of ridges, and even then, this was minimal in extent. We continued to find soft, faceted surfaces on shady slopes all the way to about 8000’, and below this, high air temperatures had made the surface snow moist. In the trees, this was more pronounced due to extensive tree drippings. Solar slopes had undergone several melt-freeze cycles all the way to 9800’ and were very supportable to travel. Slopes were moist by the early afternoon, but we didn’t see any rollerballs or signs of wet instability, despite very high air temps (40s at 9k). Overall, the skiing was wonderful today on shady slopes, and would also have been so on sunny slopes, given the right timing.