Observation: North Ogden Divide

Sunrise on surface hoar around 7200ft, uncharacteristic of this location and indicative of how calm winds have been in the last 36 hours.

View from the south of the Chilly Peak ridge line of Ben Lomond. Some evience of wind cross loading, and some cornice development at the ridge, but both relatively benign in appearance (at least from a distance).

Pre-dawn skinning was christened with the glittery sparkle of small grain surface hoar blanketing everything in sight. Winds were clearly insignificant following the last skiff of fresh snow on Sunday night. The northeast shoulder of the skin track (7100-7500ft) still held soft powder as well as surface hoar, though it is typically quite wind affected in this location and I'd not typically expect to find surface hoar there (firm wind affected snow was evident just below the surface). Snow depths of about 100cm were rather uniform across the 1300ft elevation gain, with places as shallow as 75 or 80cm down low and as much as 110cm up high. Surface snow did not run long at all on steeper slopes, with no sluff management really required. It will be interesting to see how the weather forecast sets up for the arrival of the next storm and what happens to the surface hoar in the meantime.