Sage Creek/Slide Creek

I took a winter ski tour for winter camping (less downhill) and found that lower elevation was thin snowpack (sub 8000 feet) but as you moved above 8000 feet snowpack became a 1-2 inch layer of firm crust due to recent melt/freeze cycles and granular snow beneath. In meadows above 8500 with more depth and windblown areas, I found 6-12inches of firm snowpack with that granular loose snowpack mostly running to the ground (24-30 inches) both were even variable within my camp location. Even building a tent pad it was a challenge to consolidate the snowpack. This new snow likely will make it increasingly unstable. I was out Sunday to Monday and received approximately 2 inches of new snow overnight which was barely impactful. Since this area is just below snowmobiling areas and less traveled by skiers especially given the lack of snow right now, I just thought I would share if helpful. Traverses I covered late morning showed cracking as warming happened made me take far less risky traverses but not quite to a woomphing, even on such low angle but seeing the buck ridge report today, I thought it would be worth sharing. Warming was starting to feel sketchier even on low angle and even the day after retracing my skin tracks I noticed on isolated low angle short pitches I had traversed (ie: 20-25 degree), I was seeing wet release snowball signs, which was also was interesting. That area sits around 8800 so this was the traverse below the snowmobile trails but in wilderness more closely following slide creek.

Quick report