President's Ridge

Feeling a little dusty after the party last night we got a delayed start to the day. Hoping to get a look into the snowpack and surface conditions at upper elevation we opted for a climb up President's Ridge from the Goldmint lot. Travel was overall quite easy as surface conditions are supportable and ski pen ranged from 2-10cm for most of the tour. A thin band of elevation from about 2700-3000' held the softest snow in a slightly more protected area. A snowpit at 3500' on a SE aspect revealed a thick homogenous slab on old basal facets, no reactivity from tests outside of some broken, reluctant compression test results. Riding conditions were good but variable with stiff wind slabs at mid and upper elevations. Great viewing of the widespread natural activity on either side of the ridge in Marmot 1 and Archangel 1. I'm feeling a little more confident in the forecast as the days go on but still going to approach new slopes with caution.

Surface conditions were variable throughout the tour. Below about 2750' we found supportable snow with a thick but breakable crust and some shallow drifts of windblown snow. Between about 2750' and 3000' was the best snow of the day, with 8-12 inches of softer, less wind effected snow. Above 3000' on the ridge wind effect became more apparent and the surface was at times very firm. We dug a couple of hand pits and found reluctant shear under the most recent wind slabs about 8-12'' deep. We dug one pit right around 3500' on a SE aspect and found 110 cm of snow that was a pretty homogenous slab ranging from 4 to 1F in hardness on top of a layer of basal facets. We got no propagating results in snowpit test but compression tests revealed a couple of mid-storm layer density changes and wind slabs that failed in a reluctant, broken manner.