Quick report
With Everitt Meml Hwy still reporting as closed at McBride Springs and several sunny days since the latest snow, I decided to look for a car-accessible trailhead from which I could access some north aspects to ski some nice cold powder. Process of elimination pretty much left the Deer Mountain Snowmobile Park (ironically, as a snowmobile-less skier). When I arrived at 1:30pm I found the parking lot totally empty and FR19 freshly groomed that morning! Temps in the low 20s, a freshly groomed road, and traction-pattern skis made for sublime (and fast) cross-country style skiing up the road. I turned right off the road at 6800' and began breaking trail up an east aspect ridge. The snow was reasonably ski-supportable (9" ski penetration, knee/thigh deep boot penetration) and breaking trail was not as difficult as I'd feared it might be. Ascended to 7800' where I transitioned for the descent around 4:00pm. Temperature at this point was in the low teens. Descended gladed slopes around 25 degree max slope angle back to FR19 around 6500' in phenomenal powder: light and cold, but still supportable enough to not bog you down on these slope angles. The first 800' or so of the descent was totally untracked. Below that (in the clear cut area) there were some snowmobile tracks, but not enough to be particularly bothersome. I was able to glide/skate down a good portion of FR19 on my return, which took about 30 minutes from 6500' to the Snowmobile Park. About a mile from the Snowmobile Park I ran into some loggers in pickup trucks who were trying to return to the Snowmobile Park from their worksite on a logging road off of FR19. FR19 had evidently been groomed after they had driven in, and they were struggling to drive down the groomed road. Their trucks left some pretty big ruts in the groomer, and they mentioned they might need to bring a skid-steer down the road to clear the snow berm at its start so their trucks can exit. All that is to say: until the road can be re-groomed, don't expect a full-width groomer for the first mile or so on FR19. Temps were in the high teens at 5pm back at the Snowmobile Park. Overall, I highly recommend this tour if anyone gets a chance while things are still cold before the next storm cycle. Saw a small slab avalanche on the FR19 road cut around 6700', which appeared to have happened near the end of the last storm cycle. No other signs of instability, though I only observed terrain <30 degrees slope angle on this tour.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 13
- Cloud Cover
- clear
Winds calm, temperature low 20s at 5800' falling to low teens at 7800'.
Snowpack
Just like on Mt. Shasta, snow depth really ramps up between 5500' and 6000'. Snow depth at Deer Mountain Snowmobile Park was sufficient for skinning off of FR19, though maybe a little shallow for descending as some larger bushes, saplings, and logs were still sticking out. Above 6000' the snow is plenty deep to ski in the trees. I measured a depth of 2.1 m at my high point of 7800', and I wouldn't be surprised if it was deeper in more protected areas. Snow surface on all aspects sampled (north, east, flat) was cold and dry with no sun crust. Ski penetration was about 9", but I could easily stick my pole (with powder basket) down about 2'. Surface hoar with a maximum size of about 1 cm was present pretty much everywhere not directly under trees. A few tree bombs/drippings but most trees were holding onto most of their snow.