In Mineral today we got a good reminder that indeed the snowpack in the outlying areas of the Central Wasatch is different and a bit skitchier. Mineral is a bit of a catcher's mitt of wind due to it's orientation towards the desert so it wasn't surprising that there was more wind affected snow on the sub-ridges, and we were being respectful of the lee sides of the adjacent cross-loaded gullies watching the slope angles. On the subridges without tree protection the new snow from the recent storm had blown off exposing that dirt layer (that came from the Black Rock desert or somesuch?).

We dug a fair number of quick hand pits and found a lot of variability depending on the elevation and wind affect/shelter, but the overall story was that the snowpack was thinner and there was still a lot of air near the ground. We had a couple of whoomphs down lower in the drainage while skinning but nothing moved, and even up higher near the top of the Mineral ridge there was some mid/lower snowpack faceting; see the video of me wallowing in sugar (turn up the volume) after I leaned on my pole to pull my skins and my pole plunged to the ground, then in trying to get up even my boot went deep into the sugar. Getting a significant load on that terrain and less-bomber snowpack (like this upcoming week?) could create a spicy situation more so than only a few miles upcanyon. Probably okay between now and then, however.