BT

Quick report

Figured I’d get out to BT hoping the latest precip was actually snow up high, and before the temps warm up too much… BWAHAHAHAHA! If anything, we need those warm temps to melt all the BLUE ICE everywhere!! The winds really did a number in the alpine. Skinning out to the main crater, I thought the light was playing tricks on me because I was seeing what looked like tons of areas stripped down to blue ice. I mean that can’t be, can it?? Well apparently it can! Never actually seen it like that out there, it was crazy. There was a group ahead of me that made it up to the apron below Pucker and I think they were sitting there going WTF trying to decide what to do. That ice was not skiable… or skin-able. Both when ascending and descending you’d have to have your vision finely tuned to avoid anything with the slightest blue-ish hue. I decided to bail on the bowl and wrap around to the No Name side, and while there were still some stripped/icy sections over there, it was WAY better than in the bowl. In Smiley it was probably 3” over blue ice at the bottom (just enough to skin on, and just enough to make turns on) getting deeper on the way up. In the Ramp, it was probably 8” over the blue ice crust most of the way, except for the very top like 20’ or so right by the ridge. Cramponing up that to the ridge, I thought I could edge over it on the descent - nope! It was 20’ of slide for life ice till I hit the pow, which I knew would be fine but I was hoping it wouldn’t be that exciting! 😱 The best snow was right next to the skiers right cliff wall, as you got further out skiers left it turned into that ice crust. Actually pretty good turns all the way down below that initial scary ice, deep enough to actually leave a track! 🤣 With the rapid warmup starting tomorrow, it might soften up that blue ice crust that’s all over the place, but at the same time any soft snow that was there will turn to mank. Would be nice to have a spring but seems like we might be going straight to summer??