McDermott Blazin'

It was sunny with clear skies in McDermott Basin today. At 2000 m the temperature was -2 and the wind was light from the SW. A great day to be outside! We are still trying to fully grasp the distribution of the buried surface hoar, so digging in the snow on a variety of aspects and elevations was the goal today. In our travels over the last 2 days, it’s seems all south aspects have a surface temperature crust (all the way up to ridgetop) that is bridging the surface hoar/melt freeze crust combo (SH/MFcr) in some capacity. Where the crust is thick and bridging, we feel comfortable skiing some avalanche terrain. On north aspects we have found more variety. At lower elevations there is a thinner, breakable temperature crust over the SH/MFcr combo, and at higher elevations it does not exist. We are getting propagating test results on this layer on N and NE aspects. We saw old natural loose dry avalanches in the alpine most likely from the storm on Sunday (Feb 8th), but other than that, no natural activity. The road into McDermott is shockingly dry. We parked past the bridge, at the cat shop. From there, the access is in great condition. Thanks Travis for the road work, it’s always appreciated! We want to give a shoutout to the moustache boys on the ridge! Hope the rest of your stay is wonderful (can’t wait to read your min reports…. 😆)