Ptarmigan Cirque

My late report, forgot to post this last week... We went to Highwood Pass and first tried the nearest Highwood Pocaterra Cirque. Snow was only good in the dense trees on the approach trail. Open areas - no good snowbase - we punched through to grass and roots. So then we crossed highway 40 , skinned up the rocky Ptarmigan Cirque trail to treeline. Heard 𝗗𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 as we skinned up across wind-packed snow there but we skied a gentle slope in a wind-lee area and got a few turns down to a steep gully then followed a snowboard track along the gully where snow conditions were shallow but decent. Quickly found a rocky creek bed down near the highway side and returned to our car.