This cowboy ain't going for a ride today.

Quick report

Weather

stormy

Ride Type

mellowSlopes, openTrees

Stayed Away

convexSlopes, steepSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

powder, windAffected

Greetings from KC hut. Our group headed out for a walk from the hut, looking for good tree skiing in consideration of low vis conditions. We dug a pit on Russet Ridge to assess stability. The slope was 32 degrees, SE aspect. Snowpack was 110cm deep at this location, treeline. fist for 50cm, followed by a wet, crusty, rounded layer all the way to the ground. Tests: 
 CT, easy (4 taps), sudden planar failure on storm layer 25cm down. ECT hard (27 taps), propagating, sudden planar failure on crust layer 50cm down. Concerned with these results, we backed off to ski mellower trees on cowboy ridge. We happily rode powder laps from 2000m to 1800m but encountered very heavy powder conditions below that. ;;; The wind is howling outside the hut, while we are sleeping tightly tucked. Dreaming of sweet powder turns, before the freezing levels burns.

Weather

Wind Speed

windSpeedModerate

Sky Condition

overcast

Precipitation Type

snow

Snowpack

Depth

135

Obs Type

point

Site Aspect

SE

Test Fracture

sudden

Site Elevation

1925

Ski Penetration

19

Test Initiation

moderate

Test Failure Depth

53

Site Elevation Band

tln

Surface Conditions

newSnow

Test Failure Layer Crystal Types

facets