Pow town at Idaho Mountain

<p>Window shopping new lines from the truck is always a fun way to start the day! With the pass closed last minute we opted to do an exploratory mission in the Wheaton valley. This zone was chosen for its aspect, slope angle, recent avalanche conditions and group ablities. The apspect provided shelter from the prevailing winds. Slope angle looked optimal for the group as 2 of 4 were brand new to Splitboarding. Recent avy contions indicated a unstable snow pack in the alpine so this allowed us to avoid that expousre. Plus the zone provided 1500ft of beautifully gladed tree skiing at the top with a slope angle of around 36deg ish.(we chose the more mellow side but there is an option to have steeper tree skiing) Around 700ft of low angle fun riding for the bottem section. For a total of around 2400ft of down. We did use a sled to get us close but not necessary. Total distance was close to 8km round trip. Climbed up to 4200ft, snow above tree line has seen significant wind effect causing 2-5" thick wind slab. Shooting cracks seen on this small top layer. Below tree line snow is very much uneffected. (Some might even say excellent)? I will be adding this to my list of fun tree skiing zones! Forsure! </p>

Weather Report

<p>-29 at 1030am then it warmed up to -15 thoughout the day. We lost the sun over the west ridge at around 4pm dropping the tempeature close to -20ish</p>

Terrain Ridden

Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Snow Conditions

Deep powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold.