“How strange and wonderful is our home, our earth, with its swirling vaporous atmosphere, its flowing and frozen liquids, its trembling plants, its creeping, crawling, climbing creatures, the croaking things with wings that hang on rocks and sour through the fog, the furry grass, the scaly seas.”
– Edward Abbey
~
D-Rock surfing the good stuff.
I made it up to the pass twice this week and found safe and stellar skiing on both occasions. As everyone knows, this season’s snowpack is delicate and reactive. We have a widespread issue with depth hoar that will likely plague us for months to come, and the complexity of the snowpack can drastically differ from location to location. Digging around on various aspects in different drainages near Cameron Pass I saw very little in common pit to pit. One constant was a large (35-65cm) bed of FC (faceted crystals) beneath various layers of / (Decomposing and fragmented precipitation particles) and + (Precipitation Particles).
Incredible turns on Ptarmigan Run
My friend Derek and I enjoyed incredible conditions yesterday on South Diamond’s Ptarmigan Run. 35+cm of fresh, dry and light precip unaffected by the wind allowed for my first face-shots of the season. Temperatures remained in the 20s, and while we enjoyed a wind-free day on the N/NE face, we were immediately pummeled by W/NW gale force winds once we crested the summit ridge. We took into account the growing cornice threat on the ridgeline from S. Diamond well over to Montgomery Pass. The recent slides on point 11,588 were visible and we determined the crowns from these large slides were easily 7+ feet in depth – they ran to the ground. Be safe, have fun, and tour wisely.
Here’s some useful links.
Powderbuzz CP-Conditions thread
