Dana Holmes

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Red Pine

Red pine gulch

Travel up red pine summer trail to lake and lower flanks of lake shot to see how things are shaping up in that neighborhood. Shockingly little snow in the exposed terrain up there. The elements have really done a number on what little has fallen this year. Dug to the ground on a few N-NE facing slopes 9700-1000 and didn’t find more than 100cm anywhere. Pronounced layer of basal facets, but damp and starting to round. Fairly boring snowpack above that. Based on whatbI saw, I’d be pretty optimistic that the facet layer would fully heal if it were early December. This season, with a snowpack that’s still this thin in mid Feb? Who knows. My conclusion - this terrain is still so rocky that even a small ride would result in massive trauma and the snowpack still isn’t exactly confidence inspiring with those kinds of consequences on the line. Probably just not the year to ski bigger terrain on the South side of LCC. I hear the rollerblading has been great in Liberty Park, though.

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