Palisades

Quick report

Went up into the Palisades yesterday hoping to ski V notch. We walked on dirt for about 3 miles until about 9500’, where we started skinning. We still had to take skis off and on for a bit longer, until we crossed the creek to the other side of the drainage, and we were on consistent snow from there. The refreeze was supportable on all open slopes and made for easy travel. V Notch had a gigantic cornice on top, so we did not roll the dice with that given the heat. We pivoted to the NW on Sill, which was in transitional conditions. There was a thin (3-5 cm) melt freeze crust over cold snow. This crust was mostly supportable to boots, but we occasionally broke through. As this warmed in the sun, it skied decently, but didn’t soften fully until back on the glacier. Looking down the L-shaped also showed winter snow, with even some faceting occurring on the surface. The glacier itself skied quite well, although this was also quite textured and bumpy. This trend continued all the way down to the end of skiable snow around 9500’. We found very little mature corn on any northerly slopes, but instead textured, pseudocorn. We did not see any signs of instability all day, but conditions were certainly thin. The upper 20 feet of the line we skied was only about a ski width wide, and doesn’t seem like it will stay in for too much longer.