Public Observation

Observation Details

Observations

Skied Scheelite Chute today, leaving the car at ~6:30 am. Temps were just below freezing at the car, winds were light, and travel was mostly supportable, with a mix of wind buffed surfaces and stout melt-freeze crusts. Faceted snow existed underneath all of these surfaces, and in occasional areas where the crust was less stout, boot pen was into this layer quite a ways. For a brief period, high cloud cover built in, but the sun got above these clouds, and was quite strong. There were occasional winds down canyon (NW), and when I topped out around 10:20, winds were strong at the ridgetops out of the NW. Occasional small ice chunks came down the couloir, and there was one instance of small rockfall, but very minor. There were sections of old loose-wet debris, as well as ice chunks falling off the rock walls to either side, but these were easily navigated around. I dropped to ski right around 11:15 and seemed to time it well. The upper, steep SE facing chute was perhaps a bit underripe, but skied excellently. The skier's R side, which faces more E than SE, was more wintery and firm the entire length of the chute. The long, open middle section of the chute was wonderful, smooth, melt-freeze skiing, and even got a little bit overcooked down low, where ambient temperatures were quite high. The lower part of the canyon seems to be shaded most of the day, and clearly has not gone through as many melt-freeze cycles, but the warm temperatures had softened it nicely, allowing easy progress to the car.

Signs of Unstable Snow