Ski it to believe it.

We heard reports of great early season skiing, but we had to directly observe these conditions for ourselves.

• 1 inch of new snow, sun, and calm winds were the initial conditions at the start of a sporty brush-rich skin ascent.
• As expected, the ridgelines up to 6996’ held wind-affected snow and baby cornices, however we did not observe obvious signs of instability.
• The best skiing was on the shaded, northern aspect of an east-facing avalanche path. Notably, the skiing on the opposite side of the path, (slightly more easterly aspect) was noticeably stiffer from wind transport of the new, lower density snow.
• Good visibility made for easier navigation in the brush on both the ascent and descent.
• Although it was mostly sunny, the air temperature stayed cool enough that the new inch of snow did not get moist, even at 4500.’
• We observed that an elk stomped up the skin track, to higher elevations.