Upper Ward Canyon

We toured Upper Ward Canyon today, traveling terrain just south of Grouse Rock. We started and ended our tour with about a half mile of walking on dirt in approach shoes. Once on the snow, we were able to travel with some but not excessive removal of skis to cross bare ground or open creeks. SE aspect terrain in this area holds very little to no snow. E to NE aspects hold much better areas of continuous snow cover, especially above about 6,800' or so.

The overnight refreeze in this area was decent on open slopes, but it melted quickly this morning. Areas of boot-top-deep wet snow were encountered on open slopes at and below our ridgetop high point of 8,400' from around 11:00 am onwards. We ski cut a few E aspect test slopes, triggering just a few rollerballs. The few snow bridges that remained over some of the smaller creeks were notably weaker during our early afternoon exit from the area.