Quick report
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No red flags. We broke a trail into the upper bowl and didn't see any recent avalanches but there was still some subtle evidence of older avalanches, almost completely covered up by the most recent series of snowstorms. I pushed the handle end of my ski pole into the snow dozens of times to feel for the depth hoar layer near the ground but it's buried deeply enough these days that it's hard to feel. It has the feel like it's buried deep enough that we will likely not see a lot of deep slab activity unless you trigger it from a shallow area. But this is just a guess because I didn't dig any pits. I will not put a danger rating on it because I didn't dig any pits, but I'm guessing somewhere in the Considerable to Moderate range on the northeast half of the compass. If you're going to get into more hazardous terrain, you should stick to the southwest half of the compass. </p> <p>This is mainly a report on the general snow conditions and coverage up high in Maybird. As usual in the early season, the upper bowl is quite bony and needs a lot of snow to cover things up. We decided not to ski off the headwall because of the rocky coverage but the skiing was quite good in the mid elevation north through east facing trees with plenty of great coverage. The trail is in great shape because so few people have been getting up into Maybird and, like I said, we broke a trail into the upper cirque.</p>
Here's 4 photos from the day to see what the coverage looks like in various areas. It's still bony in the upper cirque and needs more snow there, as is often the case in the early season.
Snowpack
Just a few inches of light powder on the surface on a supportable, spongy, old snow with some riming to it. Quite good, fast skiing on low angled terrain but cold snow surface temperatures made the skis slow.