Puzzle Ramp
Marcus Baranow,
Wednesday 7th February, 2024 4:20PM
We skied 1 lap on Puzzle Ramp run. Snowpack is about what we're finding in most places on the 93n, shallow but when you can find a good crust it works out for skiing.
The snow on ground is still depth hoar/facets, mid pack looks to be mixed forms trending towards rounds, and above that is the crust and the snow that fell recently. HS is variable, we saw ground in places (BTL and TL) and measured up to 1m too.
Very sunny and warm today, we saw the surface snow start to change as we started down. One steeper micros the new snow was able to easily slide on the crust. I'd expect this to become the new main layer of concern.
We skied the looker's left side of the ramp, there were a ton of tracks on the far looker's right. A party of 2 in front of us went to the peak and we never saw them again. The crust was more supportive then I thought it would be, enough so that I was able to ski fairly aggressively and hit a few boulder jumps along the way without issue.
There were fresh avalanches off Noseeum's north aspect coming out of steep, rocky, mostly unskiable terrain. They ran mid path or less. Probably the more recent snow shedding off with the crust providing a sliding surface. The east aspect of Dolomite has dozens of small to large avalanches, some running full path (deposit in the skiout for Dolomite Circuit) but they all seem to be released during the big warming period.
There are a ton of different skin tracks in the area, going all over the place, so if you don't know the area it's better to stay left at any forks along the current tracks.
Location: 51.67466000 -116.33079000