Mineral seemed weird to us today on our first visit there this season. We were encouraged by Monsignor Nalli's report from upper LCC (I haven't visited upper LCC since I can't figure out how or if I can park there) and kinda found similar in upper BCC yesterday, but whether from the Big Winds of the last few days what whip into the Mineral catcher's mitt or from the more macro-level storm system tracks, Mineral had noticeably less snow than we have seen elsewhere lately, which meant that we were closer to the PWL at the base of the 'pack than elsewhere. We kept digging hand pits (all that was needed) and found the total snow depth to be not much more than 2' deep on the leeward side of the subridges and sometimes only inches on the windward sides (but that didn't keep us from going a little too fast in the nice surface snow). The ambient snow (is that a correct use of that term?) where there wasn't wind affect was more like 18". Up higher - like around 9k' - the PWL was a few inches off the ground, which made sense to us; that's where the Oct snow lingered, whereas down lower the snow that barely lasted through the warm November faceted on the ground, and small hand- cut blocks slid off easily. Fortunately the nice snow enabled <30 degree slopes to ski very nicely.

So it was a little weird, and "weird" typically indicates to me to exercise caution, so we kept our travel choices pretty conservative. Adding more load via the storm happening now could have more of an effect there in than in other places due to the thinner snowpack and thus closer proximity of the potential 1-2 feet of new snow to the PWL, especially if the Mineral mitt again catches wind and gets plenty of sub-ridge cross loading?

We had two Good Skier Interactions today. Bumped into one group who after seeing our skinner and the limited terrain for multiple groups moved on elsewhere to spread the love, and communicated their plans. And then when we were doing a rescue scenario practice a coupla dudes who understandably couldn't figure out what we were doing from their vantage point on the ridge kindly avoided dropping on us, and when we met up later they emphasized that they neither wanted to drop an avy onto us nor scare us. Good neighbors all!