Allison Clay Bowl

The strong winds of The Kachina Peaks. A blessing and a curse. A blessing because it can scour the starting zones, and that means fewer avalanches. A curse because it can ruin the powder skiing in the open shots. 

Overall stable conditions today. Once we got to the edge of avalanche terrain, we were very slow and deliberate in our decision-making. And we probed very carefully, looking for any hidden windslabs under the fresh snow. Anytime the snow felt a little "upside down," we did some digging before increasing our exposure. No reactive slab was found in our hasty pits, and this was confirmed in the more extensive snowpit. 

The starting zones of Alison Clay Bowl were mostly scoured rather than loaded. See photos. Above treeline, hard snow and the holiday ice layer at the surface remain an issue. Crampons are still recommended at upper elevations. It's still thin conditions below ~10,500'. Southerly slopes are much worse. 

The main path/chute of Allison is rocky. Trees to skier's left have much better coverage. 

But there is some fun powder to ski! Look for sheltered spots where the wind did not scour or affect the surface. Most trees (not facing south) should have fun snow, near treeline (~10,500-11,500'). The snow is a little dense, but it still rides great. I suspect the density increase is due to the very strong winds from the storms breaking the snowflakes down and rounding them before they accumulated. Stubby snowflakes will pack together tighter, creating denser snow. 

We had a few small shooting cracks, but they were only a foot or two long. One reached 4 feet. But it takes several 6-foot-long cracks before I would consider checking the "cracking observed" box. We found one very, very small windslab that released as I stepped on it. It was maybe 6 feet by 6 feet and 8" deep.  Harmless in this terran. See the photo below. Other than that one very small wind slab, no instability was found today.