Eric and I decided to venture out today to see what we could see and possibly get a turn or two in while we were at it. Trail breaking on the sleds was brutal today. It's that perfect depth to be able to think you're invincible and lure you into some deep deep powder carves, while perfectly concealing big and nasty boulders that want to destroy you and your sled. So, as cautiously as we could, we rode back to our intended zone and got stuck many times over. It was seriously a battle today to just keep the sleds from blasting down like a freaking torpedo. After several failed attempts to climb where we wanted to ride, we gave up the idea of snowboarding and rallied to a safe meadow and just enjoyed some sled-assisted face shots. Not quite as good as the real thing, but pretty close. We were amazed at the difference in storm totals from the parking lot to where we ended up (around 8000 feet). Let's just say it was a pleasant surprise!

We dug a pit on a pretty flat East facing roll at 8000'. There was a total of 58" on the ground. This week's storms looked to have doubled the total snowpack. Nice! There was probably 16" of new snow from last night's storm with another 12 or 13" from Monday's storm. The snow came in right side up and nice with the fluff on top. We ran a couple of compression tests and it looked like the Monday/today storm interface was playing nice. The problem was where the old snow and the Monday storm met. Compression test failures at CT14 and CT16 about 28" down. Extended column tests showed us pretty much what we were expecting. We had results of ECT 16 at the Monday/today snow interface with no propagation. Full propagation at the old snow/Monday snow interface ECTP20.

I think I'm okay with not being able to get up to the top today. Easy to make good decisions when you're just stuck and not sitting at the top strapped in and ready to go. The snow pack is looking great. Hopefully itll keep coming!