Quick report
Toured up Little St. Joe from the Bass Creek Trailhead then continued on to Pinball Wizard. It was snowing lightly with little to no wind for the majority of our tour with some breaks in the cloud cover. There was about 1” of new snow at the Bass Creek trailhead and 5” of new snow once we reached the Little St. Joe summer trailhead. When we reached the ridge near Pinball Wizard the winds picked up from the north, causing some ridge top loading and cornice development on south aspects. Skiing was great on the upper snowfield but deteriorated once we entered the gully with about 4” of snow on top of a firm crust. There was old debris in the gully, presumably from a wet loose cycle when the temperatures were higher at the end of last week. We were able to ski the entire gully but had to avoid some open water in the bottom half. We observed some sluffing of the new snow on the crust but it was only running about 10 feet underfoot. We did not dig a pit and did not experience any cracking or collapsing. Old debris in the gully of Pinball Wizard
Weather
- Air Temp
- 15 at trailhead at 0800
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 10 cm above 6,000 ft
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Light snow with some breaks in the clouds. Ridgetop wind causing some transport and loading onto south aspects.
Snowpack
Did not dig a pit. Observed sluffing of new snow on crust and old debris in Pinball Wizard.