Quick report
It was winter along the ridges above Tony Grove today. The wind was blowing most of the day and we barely caught a glimpse of the sun all day. The snow conditions were variable, the trees held pretty good dense powder without much of a rime crust. Away from the trees the rime crust was pretty stout. Although you could feel it while you were riding, it was breakable and not too bad to ride. Under the rime crust was about 4 inches of dense powder and grauple. The snow had settled out enough that submarining in inverted snow was not an issue.
At 8600 feet on an East Northeast facing, 34 degree slope, we found surprisingly stable conditions (Lower beginner bowl). The snowpack was about 5 and a half feet deep (170cm) so it was likely not affect as much by the recent high pressure and cold temperatures. Extended column test failed at around 28 hits with full propagation ECTP28. The failure occurred right below the 8-Jan rime crust on small facets. We did not observe any other signs of instability at elevations above 8000. We did notice some cracking around some snowmobile tracks at around 7500 feet.
Snowmobiling was almost better that snowboarding today since the snowmobile was not affected by the rime crust. Deep turns on the sled produced endless faceshots. The picture below shows what happens when you let a snowboarder take the sled… downhill figure eights on a sled (Beginner bowl).