Quick report
Expecting poor visibility and a dusting of new snow, we aimed for Presidents ridge. We chose this location in hopes of observing recent snow and continuing to track the basal facets and persistent slab potential in the upper elevation starting zones.
When we left Archangel Road, the valley bottom was burbling with low clouds, but throughout our tour, we were graced with some sucker holes of sun that allowed for improved visibility and definition.
A thin, brittle crust from rain on Saturday night was evident to about 3000'. This was covered with a dusting of new snow that ranged from about 1-2'' as you climbed in elevation. We dug two pits on either side of the ridge (see snowpack notes) and encountered good to fair structure and good strength.
No instabilities were observed. We had good visibility of an old avalanche on the NE aspect of the upper Firn path and some other small, old activity lower in the gully. We skied the NE aspect down towards the gully and climbed back to the ridge before making our descent. Snow surface on this aspect was soft and supportable, and the recent rain crust was barely evident. Making our egress from lower Presidents, we were able to navigate through the gully and alders with relatively little shenanigans, finding more soft turns in the meadows above Archangel road.
We made good use of the tour location for some lively political discussion on our way down the road. In all, a great afternoon of skiing.
Encountered one small collapse in old snow on our ascent while crossing the gully below Presidents Ridge.Weather
- Air Temp
- Mid teens
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 3500'
- Recent Snowfall
- 2
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Low clouds and intermittent visibility gave way to some sucker holes of good light. Winds were calm while temps and humidity felt warm on the ascent, but chilly on the ridge and in the shade. Despite the cloud cover we had mostly good visibilty and definition and some good light on the surrounding high peaks.
Snowpack
We dug two pits on either side of the ridge (southeast and northeast aspect) at about 3500-4000' respectively. In both locations, we found a healthy, stout mid-pack slab, and snowpack tests yielded no propagating results (ECTX and some ECTN in the upper snowpack hardness breaks). The general presentation and character of the snowpack in these locations was encouraging, but we acknowledge selecting somewhat loaded aspects (over a meter deep) and that these areas might not be representative of the entire starting zones, and much less similar aspects throughout the forecast area.