Early season conditions are pretty good right now. Heres some stoke for all you weekend warriors!
Last few days have been great, eased into it yesterday with some resort touring. Today we ventured up to Emmas Ridge and Silver fork West bowl.
Most things by now in the central SATCH with decent coverage are getting hit…Superior apron, Days, Silver, Grizz, Patsy etc… no instabilities noticed
Our second lap down the gut….twas nice…Dan dropping, he’s more green than you.
Bring back that lovin’ feel in’ Whoa, that lovin’ feelin’
Snow was holding up on south facing, still blower on our exit run down Emma. Temps were pretty cold, not sure what south facing will be like after today. winds were calm yesterday and today.
^YES! ….Monochromatic kits are all the rage this year…I need to get an orange jacket.
LOL 🙂 The orange and the lime. Come to think of it I sort of resemble a blueberry
Checked out BCC this morning. It was gently snowing when I headed out in the dark and it was bitter cold.
Snow at the trailhead was impressive, but lost some luster once I began breaking trail. It appears the bulk of the snow arrived in one wave, so it is bridged over brush and deadfall. Ski penetration made trail breaking and general travel arduous. I was very much dreading the descent thinking I’d get hung up on deadfall, but it was nice to be out so I climbed on. Nearing a ridgeline as the sun came up it was near whiteout conditions and so fucking cold. My fingers went immediately numb as I transitioned, but on the positive side the clouds broke and I had clear visibility for my entire descent. A descent which end up being stellar! Like choking on snow stellar.
If the storms continue to provide, it should be a pretty good season.
Got out in BCC early again today. Approach was southerly where conditions have deteriorated badly since yesterday. Unsheltered south aspects are now crusted and frozen, where as yesterday it was powdery with significant ski penetration.
Other aspects continue to ride well. Was expecting a bit of sunshine today after yesterdays brutal cold but it was a grayscale day as far as one could see. Colder than forecast and visually bleak.
Where I didn’t see a single other person yesterday, I saw one splitter today (Nice meeting you Chris). Turns were really good, but a lingering ankle issue from last year came back with a vengeance (Sucks getting old…).
Slopes from 25-35° East/Northeast no instabilities encountered, brushy and woodsie on the exit
Cheers!
Shark Snowsurf Chuna Voile V-Tail 170 BC Voile One Ninety Five Spark R&D Arc
Took a drive up to the Uintas Sunday. It’s not really winter up there yet, so…
I stopped off along the interstate on the way home and did a quick skin in the Wasatchback. Mostly split-skiing and character building (brushwhacking).
All aspects except due north are brushy as expected, as are all aspects below about 8k’. Exposed due north was interesting as the entire one to two feet of snow is all loose facets. Weird area with some potential and quick access.
Cheers!
Shark Snowsurf Chuna Voile V-Tail 170 BC Voile One Ninety Five Spark R&D Arc
Headed up Porter fork to check out some new(for me) terrain. Snow was still fantastic, snagged a couple fun lines.
BCC view
Freshies
The snow faceting didnt seem too bad, Gobblers looked wind jacked, some wind board covered by 3-4 inches of new very light snow towards the ridges in exposed spots, Although almost all the areas traveled was still settled blower pow.
Got out for a quick afternoon tour in BCC. Conditions at the trailhead were a bit damp and temps were warm, but coverage continues to improve with each storm. 3-4″ of fresh at the highway up to 8-10″ above 9k’ with winds causing considerable variation in depth. Significant bridging over brush and deadfall continues to make for arduous trail breaking. Hopefully the forecast sierra cement will smash things down a bit.
Had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of Howie Garber today, share trail breaking duties and some good turns. Its always a treat meeting the folks that have been doing this stuff for decades and still get’n after it.
Rode an easterly line from a summit and it was creamy settled with some chalky wind transport. West thru north looked jacked where exposed to recent winds. But tracks were evident on all the usual lines.
Looking forward this arctic river thingy
Cheers!
Shark Snowsurf Chuna Voile V-Tail 170 BC Voile One Ninety Five Spark R&D Arc
Wow! what a difference a few storms make, seemed like old times. Not much to offer in the way of observations, if you looked you could find a bit of everything, grauple, wind crust, deeeeep pow, chalky… Kept it mellow on the sunnyside, super fun!
Hey theres a party on the cone!
Doodling
Cheers!
Shark Snowsurf Chuna Voile V-Tail 170 BC Voile One Ninety Five Spark R&D Arc
Thanks Corey, glad you got out Saturday.. The 7200/Wasatch Blvd intersection was a nightmare by the time I got there so I sat Saturday out.
I was a bit beat when I did my initial report so here is a bit more about the conditions Sunday.
Left Spruces about 6:45 it was lightly snowing with gusty winds in exposed terrain. Sort of cold and a midlayer and shell were perfect for the approach.
2″ on approach cabin road over rock hard base increasing to 4″ over Saturdays tracks at Blunder Fork Ski penetration just off trail was up to 10″. This increased/decreased significantly dependent on wind exposure. As much as 2’+ in select areas. In the area ridden boot penetration approached 3′!
Due west exposed upper terrain and ridges looked to be scoured down to rocks and brush, the result of west winds and resulting in cornice formation most evident on east, north east facing ridges. Due south ridglines were wind board and scoured. I did not venture onto the nearby north facing as the lines were angled above my risk threshold. Most of the steeper lines looked very slabby and convex and while they were enticing, it wasn’t hard to pass on them.
Protected glades and bowls of all aspects were the beneficiaries of the wind as the areas were well filled in and consistently deep. Early in the day as the storm moved out these areas rode a bit slow, but improved considerably with settlement and sun. I ended up touring for twelve miles and bout 5K’ of up and down. It was so good I didn’t feel tired and really wanted to keep going, but an empty belly and good judgement had me heading for the exit around 4pm.
I’ll take as many days like this as I can get, awesome.
Shark Snowsurf Chuna Voile V-Tail 170 BC Voile One Ninety Five Spark R&D Arc
Headed up White Pine…on our way to North er Northeast(ish) Lake Peak
Some isolated wind effect up high, non reactive, graupel under windboard noticed
high n facing Lake Peak…suspect whale, cut it w/ no results
looking across at our previous line from Red Baldy, getting ready to drop
Wasatch Surf, surfing it up
lines…exiting from the bottom of lake peak
We found good stability on all routes traveled…Tested many steep slopes on our way up without any results. Most of White Pine has a nice amount of low density snow sitting on top of a wind board that has bonded well making for some really nice supportable surfy turns… the wind board seems to have welded things in place. Graupel was noticed under the windboard but was not a factor.