Quick report
My partner and I ventured into the 20 mile drainage with low expectations of snow quality. As with many things in life, low expectations can lead to being pleasantly surprised vs. having high expectations and then being disappointed. We even took our big skis thinking the snow would be mashed taters. Skinning up a west aspect at 10:30 am had us wishing we had our smaller skis and ski crampons. Solution was to boot pack. This was despite the warm evening and lack of freezing temperatures. Topping out at 8600’, we took a look at a steeper east aspect that had been cooked already and had roller balls. We opted for a safer option. The newer snow at 8500’ on an east aspect hadn’t fully transitioned to corn yet, but got progressively better (less new snow) as we descended down to 6500’. Good enough that we decided to go up a west aspect that still looked to be partially shaded. A stiff westerly breeze blew us around a bit on the ridge top and skiing the west aspect at 2:00pm the snow was still slightly crunchy and hadn’t fully softened yet. Climbing back up the east aspect out of the wind was t-shirt and shorts for a bit. Definitely felt like late April or early May. Interesting enough, in mid April of last year, we had done a similar tour with cooler temperatures but due to the higher sun angle, the snow had softened sooner. The snow was already beginning to refreeze at 4:30 on the east aspect despite the 50 degree temperatures.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8300 ft
Wet slides primarily on east aspects. Perhaps the stiff westerly breeze kept the west aspects from gaining too much heat, or we just didn’t see them today.