Granite

Snowmobiling on the road was an adventure in itself with many down trees to go around, under, and over. Highly recommended to bring a saw if wanting to venture deep into the mountains. Grooming will be difficult and delayed. Water flowed in creeks normally frozen this time of year-be cautious not to dump your sled. Overall we observed a thin but supportive snowpack that was punchy to poles but not to skis. We had a ski penetration of only 3-5 cms. But poles would punch through the upside down new snow to the hard rain crust. It was a chilly day with little to no sunshine up high. A cold wind kept us on a north aspect out of the below zero wind chill temperatures. We did not observe any signs of recent avalanches in the limited visibility, nor experience any cracking of the new snow or of the few cornices we stomped on. We did however, have isolated collapses on our skin track on lap 3. We hypothesized this was due to added stress on the upside new snow on top of the hard rain crust as each lap we would penetrate the supportive top layer deeper. Ski cuts did not produce any results but we stayed out of steeper more avalanche prone slopes and played on the softer snow surfaces of lower angled wind sheltered terrain. Small test slopes of steep micro roll overs did not release as well. We did not stop in the cold temperatures to dig a snow pit but did a quick hand pit that popped easily and guessed that a snow pit would show poor results. Given the early season thin coverage and known funky upside down setup, we felt it best to travel cautiously despite the snowpack not screaming at us. It’s a long season and keeping in check our excitement seemed prudent. Many obstacles still remain, see a lump, avoid the hump, or do a jump.

Quick report