Gomer Pyle Sunday

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

• Expecting dust on crust conditions. Got dust above 5000 feet (1-5 cm new snow overnight) but not supportable crust. At least not for skinning skier over 165 pounds. 3-8 cm thick MFcr under new snow, but sitting on soft, coarse-grained, unfrozen melt-freeze grains. This structure extended to over 6000 feet.
• The funky crust/wet snow made for decent turns, with light touch. Until about 4800 feet. Then it was all the tricks of survival skiing.
• Shady (northeast-facing) mid- and upper-elevation slopes held excellent snow with no signs of instability. No propagation in profile, no collapsing or cracking on gladed and open slopes 30-35 degrees with short pitches up to 38 degrees. Still not ready to step out into large, open bowls without more digging ad testing.

Blowing snow at ridgelines, but only shallow (3-6"), small wind slabs near ridges where we traveled.