Quick report
Beautiful day at the Pass. Fun, fast nordic skiing and quiet skinning on hard snow. NWAC weather forecast got the cloud-heights spot on again today. Inversion topped out much higher and had a higher ceiling than last Friday. Blue sky above through a perpetual clear spot just E of the Pass kept it from being gloomy. Frosty trees in the morning from ~3500' to 5000', with a stark transition to green trees below. By the end of the day, only shady wind-sheltered trees retained all of their morning frost. The most remarkable thing: skinning up Silver Fir, so much frost had blown out of the trees as to gently refurbish the snow surface in many places; nature's snow-making. This unusual layer was 1cm deep in widespread areas near trees and reached 2cm in places. Never seen anything like it. Skinning on that surface was velvet. SH beginning to grow wild on the abandoned groomers and elsewhere (see images). For those who can reach them safely (think skins or microspikes), the conditions on the upper nordic trails at the Summit look quite fine in spots. If only there were a way to convince the Summit to keep grooming them and offer rides up the Silver Fir lift to keep the nordic community humming. Cabin Creek's grooming remains superb and very, very fun.