Route was up to the head of Maybird back into Red Pine. Skied W and NE aspects on Rainbow Peak
Three layers of snow on top of the old refrozen snow. Together these three layers totaled about 18 inches.
- Top layer was the new snow - cold, dry, and light
- Middle layer was a supportable hard layer mostly from Thursday's winds. At elevations below about 9800 ft this layer had a crust from warming/sun/greenhousing on Thursday.
- Softer layer was the bottom of these three. It was easy to feel with a ski pole.
We found stubborn wind drifts in Maybird. Few would crack and move but some were several feet thick and we didn't trust them. Viz was bad (whiteout) so we descended. If going high on Saturday, I'd be watching for wind slabs. They are probably everywhere. Lightly scoured slopes should ski well though.
It snowed all day. By 2 pm the top 2-3 inches would sluff really easily on slopes >35. By 6pm these sluffs were 4-5" deep. They were easy to out run. This may only be problem Sat morning especially if we get snow tonight.
Lastly, we were constantly assessing the soft layer number 3. Without a grains of graupel in it or a wind slab on top, we had no concerns.
Had battery issues, so no meaningful photos. It was a beautiful winter day with great powder. Saturday morning should have great conditions until the snow gets wet.
Photo 1 - In Red Pine
Photo 2 - near the top of Rainbow Peak
