Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>I did not observe wind loading in my travels today, but the winds are still strong with blowing and drifting on the highway. It has been some tough driving getting to and from the trailhead this week and I'm sure there are some places that are seeing lots of wind.</p>
Normally the wind direction along the Gold Hill ridge line is from right to left in this photo, but the east winds have blown up slope.
The cold clear night created some nice loose faceted snow on the surface which was beautiful this morning and it made for some great riding and turning.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Sounds like another windy evening and morning before the winds start to calm down tomorrow. Likely a few areas that have wind issues and could be sensitive to riders, but hopefully the wind is moving out. Feels like some isolated moderate hazard for wind, but today it had a low hazard feel. Lots of riders were getting onto steep slopes today with no problems and seems like the spring riding season is here. </p>
The sunny slopes this morning were crusted and did soften some later in the afternoon. I found some nice cold loose dense snow on the north and northwest facing slopes that were not damaged by the recent winds. There was some firm dense wind drifed snow on the exposed ridges. The conditions right now are great for moving around into some bigger terrain and the snow cover is very good.