Mount Ripinski

Observations from doing the Koot to Kat adventure race (roughly North to South up and over Ripinski). Found good snow in open trees on NE aspect, up to maybe 650m. Snow was a few days old, but still very light and unconsolidated. Depth varied from 5cm to 20cm+, increasing with elevation. This was on a very hard midpack (couldn't punch a pole through). Higher up, the snow depth increased to maybe 45cm, but felt much more settled and wind affected, many areas had soft to hard wind slab on top. Might have been possible to find good lines regardless. I assume the riding quality would have been good to very good (my race partner didn't want to stop and verify...) Hopefully someone gets back out there to shred that powder before it's gone! For what it's worth, higher up was very wind affected. The alpine and down to below treeline was windy and mostly a mix of hard wind slabs, icy crust and rime/iced up sastrugis. Crampons were required to hike down through the trees. Fun day nonetheless!!