Quick report
Tracklog, pictures, and color commentary posted here: https://www.strava.com/activities/14604561876 https://www.strava.com/activities/14615182068 … which is of limited relevance to the ski conditions outlook since that fresh snow of more than a foot from the Memorial Day weekend storm is melting rapidly under the late-May sun (with only a little over three weeks until the summer solstice). And that foot of snow for the most part added only … a foot of snow to the usual late-season ski lines, instead of the more typical multiplier effect: the new snow mainly just stayed put in all the fetch zones, on account of both its dense wet nature and how it nestled in among the previously barren boulders. So touring along the Cog, all that new snow was still there, instead of blowing into Great Gulf. And in Great Gulf, all the boulder fields adjacent to Airplane Gully retained their snow, instead of giving it up for the cause of helping extend the ski season. Looking back on the potential avalanche danger, which has no relevance to the rest of the season, but is interesting from a continuing education perspective … Airplane was skied Saturday without incident by one person, then on Monday afternoon one skier took two runs followed by my single run. Even on such a steep line, the new snow sure seemed well-bonded to the old snow with no “energy” or cohesiveness within the new snow, just a bunch of super-heavy mank. I was told though that around 10:30 Tuesday morning something like the third person down triggered something, though sounds like D1 (rounding up), not going very far (maybe ~100’ vert max) and full width (which isn’t that wide now), with no discernable debris by the time I skied it around mid-afternoon. I was also told of a slide in descender’s left of the very top of Left Gully (i.e., the extremely steep face that is seldom skied). And an observation was posted from Friday (i.e., partway through the storm) of a slide that travelled from below Chute to the exposed trees (which are fairly high up at this point in the season). As for what’s left, or will be left soon (with vertical measured from the Strava tracklog): - Airplane was ~820’ on Tuesday but probably now requires some short downhikes/portages to get past ~500. - Pipeline looked good from the road for only a couple hundred vertical, and nobody was skiing any of the Airplane neighbors (probably for good reason, especially since the crux in Turkey Chute might already be especially sketchy by now even with the new snow). - NE Snowfield was ~500’ on Tuesday but that was via a skier’s left dogleg that is about to get cut off, so more like ~400’ down the center. - Left Gully from various accounts and pictures appears to still be pretty much full length, with an excellent connection to the base of the Bowl … although of course a ~500’ vert steep downhike on the TRT back to Hermit Lake, followed by a more moderate ~1900’ vert downhike back to PNVC. - Lower Chute appears to still be good, although the right side of the Bowl is probably back to opening up with dangerous water holes / moats. - Hillman’s looked good in a Friday video (during the storm), but a Monday account (from a distance) indicated it might be getting crux-y partway down, so that’s a potential tradeoff against the benefit of avoiding the downhike from the Bowl (as the traverse from the top of Left Gully to the top of Hillman’s is rather casual, and might be partially skiable for a while).