Fishhook Road

We made two attempts at the Fishhook Road today, each ending near the Marmot lot due to blowing snow, low visibility, and unplowed roads. A hasty measurement of the new snow on the road at the Marmot lot revealed about 8.5'' of snow @ just over 1'' of SWE. After turning around the second time, our consolation was a short walk up the skin track at Skeetawk to about 2800', where we were again turned around due to intense gusting winds.

Today, the forecast verified with a brief but intense period of strong snowfall followed by clearing skies. Winds remained strong throughout our stay and increased dramatically as we climbed in elevation. Temperatures continued to fall throughout our stay, from about 30° around noon at 1500', to about 25° at 3:30pm at about 2800'. A rain crust was observed through all of our travels, but was most pronounced around 2500'. Rain probably made a brief appearance at upper elevations last night or early this morning, but there it was covered by a more substantial layer of new snow. 

Depending on the duration of winds, I'm hopeful that instabilities will settle out pretty rapidly, and for conditions at upper elevations to be quite nice. At mid's and lowers, where the rain line is more pronounced, you'll want to avoid windward aspects where exposed crusts will make for tough, breakable riding. 

 

We were able to initiate some small, isolated cracking in small drifts on small, loaded terrain features.

Today, we mostly wanted to observe new snow, wind loading, rain line, and recent natural avalanches.

• Regarding new snow, we encountered anywhere from about 1-8'' of new snow as we climbed in elevation from Turner's to the Marmot Lot.
• Wind loading was intense and ongoing, with a large spread between sustained winds and gusts. Many aspects appeared scoured and we continued to observe flaggging along ridgelines as we were occasionally knocked around by intense gusts.
• The rain line appears to be somewhere between 3000 and 3500'. While rain likely made it to upper elevations for a brief time, there it was buried by a deeper layer of new snow.
• In regards to natural avalanches, we observed surprisingly few, but to be fair visibility was limited. During a short break of clearing in the late afternoon, we were able to make out a few small naturals along Arkose Ridge, and what looked to be one large avalanche lower on Divide Ridge.