Quick report
We saw a small improvement to coverage at Waterhouse with between 1-6 in of new snow. The snow is very low density, so much so that giving any tree branches a shake easily denudes them immediately of any snow. At about 8500 ft, we began to notice a very light fragile crust about 10 cm down; the blunt end of the pole goes through this crust easily, and one really has to look for it. At the ridge, there was more new snow than expected - about 16 cm or 6 in. Skiing down from the top, the first 100 ft vertical had some shallow harder crust but we did not break through. The next 1100 ft down was fantastic light powder skiing. From 8300 ft down, there are variable conditions with mixed hard and soft snow and plenty of obstacles: uneven, unpredictable mogul skiing. We stuck mainly to NW aspects for the descent to avoid wind crusts. No signs of wind slabs. We were not on steep enough terrain to witness dry loose.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 25
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 3-16
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
It was snowing when we started at 10:30 am. By the time we finished at 1:30 pm, the sky was clearing with winds from NE. Cold day.
Snowpack
On top of the crusts and facets of the last several weeks, there was between 1-6 in of new snow. At 7800 ft, 3cm new. At 8000 ft 6cm new. 8600 ft, 12cm new. 9000 ft,14cm new with HS at 115cm. 9400 ft, 16 cm new.