October 31, 2010

Halloween skiing (now we wait and see what happens)


I'll take this for October!

The Snowbird snowcam was showing another 7" last night, so we decided to head up LCC for some Halloween turns. There were quite a few folks out skinning and hiking. We skinned up to Wildcat ridge, and then a few hundred more feet of vertical up towards Mt Baldy. By that point it was snowing and visibility had dropped, so it was time to drop in and ski. Conditions were pretty darn good for October... 6-7" of fresh snow over a pretty decent base! No rocks were encountered, either!

Now we play the wait and see game. Warmer, drier weather is on the way. That means that the snow from this past week could create a unstable, dangerous, avalanche-prone layer at the bottom of the snowpack a few months from now. Or, ideally, it will get warm enough for everything to melt, and then we'll just start from scratch in a few more weeks and have stable conditions in the backcountry all winter. Time will tell.
In any case, its great to be back on skis!


South face of Superior... top in the clouds


Skinning up Wildcat Ridge


Looking back towards Alta


Andrea skiing


Showing some nice early season form


Clearing up and we headed back down to the valley


Happy Halloween!


"Now let me sleep!"

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