Observation: Cutler Ridge

The road has been groomed, so continuous travel on skis from the trailhead is currently possible. Snow depths increase with elevation; just add 15-25cm to Gagne's 20260106 to account for the 20260107-08 snowfall. Everything below 7000ft is still pretty rough; coverage is a far greater hazard than avalanches. Things start looking pretty decent by 7500ft, and above 8000ft coverage facilitates travel without major concerns (but still low tide).

As for the surface snow itself, there's a surface hoar band from roughly 7600-8500ft. Grains in the morning were pretty widely distributed and were about 0.3-0.5cm. On the descent in the afternoon, the sun was addressing most of this, but there was still SH in the more protected zones. Given the forecast low wind and cold high pressure, it will be interesting to see if this SH persists enough on the surface to have an impact in the mid elevations when the next snowfall arrives.

Otherwise, surface snow was largely preserved powder, with some wind-affected on top, but even that was still fairly soft in the mid elevations. Upper elevations were much more wind affected, as they are wont to be, so no surprise (or SH) there. There was a bit of rime, though, with plenty of leftover evidence on the high trees. There was a graupel layer at all elevations at the interface between the storm snow from this week.