Weather
Winds backed off and shifted to more westerly around midnight last night. They spent most of yesterday blowing out of the south at speeds of 30 - 40 mph with only one recorded gust into the 50's. We've seen worse, the problem was that it was blowing just as hard down in the desert. Unfortunately, it looks like westerly winds will be on the increase again today as the center of the low pressure system moves into Colorado. Look for partly sunny skies and cold temperatures with highs at 10,000' barely exceeding the low 20's. Tomorrow looks like a decent day to go up and survey the damage with mostly sunny skies, light to moderate westerly winds, and high temps creeping into the upper 20's. Dry and warmer conditions develop through the week.
General Conditions
Only trace amounts of snow fell out of this storm and it's fairly safe to say that conditions have taken a hit after the onslaught of wind and dust. Expect to find a variety of wind and sun crusts out there along with some dirty snow and maybe some isolated wind slabs. I pretty much hid from the wind yesterday, and did a windshield tour around the east side of the range to check out snow cover on some of the bigger southerly facing lines in anticipation of a potential corn cycle next week. Snow cover was still pretty good in spite of the snow stripping winds, the problem will be in how coated they are with dust. I'll get back to you on that once I get a good look around.
Of note: Dave and I continue to find shallow areas with poor snowpack structure, or in other words, weak faceted snow under old wind slabs. More the exception than the rule, you can nevertheless find this structure in repeat running slide paths, along wind swept ridges, and along wind scoured slope margins near rocky outcrops. If you are getting into higher, more extreme terrain, it's worth poking around and looking for this weak structure, and maybe reconsidering your line if you find it.
Desert dust:
Mountains obscured by a dusty haze:
The southeast sides of Mounts Tukuhnikivatz (left) and Peale.
Upper slopes on the SE face of Mount Peale (12,700').
Snowpack and Weather Data
