Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Went for an exploratory tour up to 9600' to see what was left behind in the wake of three days of relentless strong to extreme winds in this drainage. The destruction of the pre-storm snow pack was thorough and devastating. HS before the storm at 9000 ft. was over 120 cm. In areas affected by the gale force winds it now ranges from 0 cm to 30 cm's. There is no snow left that remained unaffected by the winds. Even in the forest, the snow surface is heavily wind affected. We chose to ski the firm but edge-able windboard and had mostly enjoyable turns. But the snow surface choices are plentiful. Huge sculpted sastrugis and breakable crust where the pre-storm snow surface is exposed are beckoning. Some softer rippled snow will lure a skier in for two turns only to result in a trap door opening beneath the skis in mid turn. On slopes tilted to the SE below 8600' the snow surface was moist on the way up and formed a breakable re-frozen crust after 1400 hrs. The widespread scouring has resulted in stripped windward slopes, shoulders and plateaus up near Mt. Warren. Leeward slopes are holding deeper snow that offer decent skiing on firm wind board. The only signs of instability I saw was cracking of some 4F to 1F+ hard wind slabs, 15 cm thick right around my skis in two places where I stomped on steep convex rollovers. The only thing I didn't see was all that new snow we saw falling for two straight days.