Today Brett Kobernik and I spent some time in the mountains checking out the snow. Initially we had thought of heading into the Electric Lake area, but once we pulled into the parking lot at the top of Fairview canyon we decided to head up higher because of the raining precipitation. The summit of Skyline had very low visibility and the clouds seemed to roll through at that elevation throughout the day. We did find better precipitation near Huntington res but I did have a few raindrops land on me while out on the snow.
The snow today was wet and heavy, seeming more like a late spring day than the end of February. Riding conditions were pleasant above 9600ft but anything below that was a dense slush that required some extra energy to turn skis and caused the snowmobile to sink deep on a few turns. Adding to the spring like conditions the snow has developed runnels in some areas and the trees had leeched into the snow causing discoloration around them. Today was very much a mixed bag of skiing. From firm wind loaded, to creamy, and wet. There seemed to be very little transition between the quality of snow. You would start your run on some fun supported/creamy snow then lower down it would dramatically change into wet dense snow. Powder baskets picked up lots of heavy loads and we were knocking out poles together throughout the day to drop the wet snow.
Doing some quick hand digs the weak faceted layer seems to be unchanged under the new snow layer. Another interesting observation from today was the settlement. Tracked out hills almost seemed untracked and parts of an established skin track had seemed to vanish since the last storm.
During our drive over to the Huntington Creek side we did witness a wet slide release above the road. Brett snagged some pictures and am sure he will post some info on it.
