Went for a drive today to see if I could find some low hanging fruit to ski up Monte Cristo. There is still a very minimal amount of snow at 9,000 ft on the East side of the Ogden Valley. The snow stake is up and running again and is only showing 6” which I believe is correct. I have been noticing a lot of snowmobiles headed up Monte so I went to see what it was all about. The road is also closing today at 4pm (November 27th, 2016). This is going to make accessing snow very difficult with snow machines. The skiing was very minimal and still very shallow. I did most of my observations from the road as my partner sat in the car. I found a small amount of old snow (1-3”). I am pretty sure that this is how most of the Northern Wasatch looks from binoculars and running the past week. Listening to other skiers around this area I am in agreeance that there is a chance that on High North-Northeast aspects you may be able to find some rotten snow but with the mainly rocky bed surface I think this will break up the slab. I am thinking these weak layers would have to be on a slope that is mainly grass in the summer. On that note I feel with more snow and skiing we will be transitioning into a usually mid-January forecast that is moderate. You may be able to trigger large persistent slab avalanches on high North-Northeast aspects but the chances are unlikely and I do not think these avalanches will be as large as usual. Here is the rundown so far of snow totals Ben Lomond Peak 9” at .9SWE and 7” at .5 SWE on Farmington Peak. Hopefully the snow continues to fall and we can really start to recreate on that frozen water soon in the Ogden Mountains.

SR 39 is now closed at the Monte Cristo/Hardware Ranch Parking area. It will be difficult to access enough snow to ride from the parking lot. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to go up the road. The shoulders do have enough snow currently to access the summit.

Coverage is still low. Tried to get a couple turns in under the powerline cutoff.