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Hi All,
We took advantage of the blue bird conditions
yesterday to get some fine skiing off the ridgeline north of Reco
Mtn.
Hi temp of -9 and no wind. HS 145-180 at
treeline. 20cm ski pen, 40cm foot pen.
On a WSW aspect at 2250m in a 158cm pit we were
getting moderate shears down 27cm and hard shears down 41cm. Both were
resistant and failing on old storm snow interfaces. The bottom 112cm was
pencil hard snow and the Halloween crust (40-47cm up) was breaking down and
rounding out. The top half meter showed a strong temperature gradient with
the cold front already driving quite deep into the snowpack. No other
shears were noted on this aspect but at roughly the same elevation on a NNE
aspect we were getting hard sudden planar results on an old buried surface
hoar layer (2-3mm) 97cm down in a pit with an HS of 170cm.
We saw numerous old crown lines and several large
gaping glide cracks on E to NE asps.
Ridgetops were characterized by stiff, brittle
cornices under the new soft storm snow. Surface hoar growth was fairly
widespread with some of the largest crystals (up to 35mm) found at
ridgetop.
The current surface will likely be our new problem
layer once buried, with the surface hoar and facet growth.
Good turns to be had now though. Just watch
for buried windslabs.
Cheers,
Shaun King
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