Observation: Big Springs

Powder

Damp

I covered 10 miles and 5600 feet (yo-yoing my way up and down Peak 9488), breaking trail for most of that, so I saw a lot of snow up to 9500 feet. There was less new snow in the South Fork drainage than I found in Snake Creek on Tuesday, but there was still 8-12 of settled snow in favored spots on top of the old melt-freeze crust and the skiing was excellent on N facing slopes. Because it stayed cool and partly cloudy today, N facing snow above 8000 stayed cold and dry, and should be good again tomorrow. Slopes with more sun exposure became slightly damp, but not too bad, and had a manageable zipper crust in the evening that should be easily negotiable tomorrow. As for stability, without exception, all of the snow I observed today was perfectly well behaved, even wind drifted snow on the ridges and cornices. Time has been kind to Tuesday's instabilities, at least in South Fork, and I felt comfortable all day on 35 degree slopes. Today was green light skiing in the mid elevations, and tomorrow should only be better. At higher elevations, I would expect that there still might be sensitive wind loaded snow from Tuesday, but just barely. Still, enough to warrant exercising greater caution if travelling above 10,000 feet in Provo. However, I would expect them to be manageable tomorrow. In addition to the snow I skied, I was able to see the entire East-facing Cascade ridgeline and observed no natural avalanche activity, except for a few small sluffs from south facing cliff bands. Since it never got very warm today, tomorrow could produce a round of post-storm wet avalanches if temperatures climb.