Mt. Kelly

Quick report

Weather

cloudy

Ride Type

steepSlopes, openTrees, mellowSlopes

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

windAffected, powder, crusty

There is currently a thick and dense icy surface crust present from the trailhead until about 1,700m. Above about 1,750m this surface crust was replaced with 15-20cm of dry powder. S and W aspects were both solar and wind affected. From visual observation snow and riding quality appears better from summit down to the highway elevation on N and E aspects, but out party did not ride these slopes. Note that there are a ton of downed trees in this area from recent wind storms, with dozens crossing the trail up to Mt. Kelly. Many of these completely obstruct the access road/trail, and required out party to boot pack to bypass them.

Weather

Avg Temp

-5

Blowing Snow

none

Sky Condition

brokenClouds

Temperature Trend

rising

Precipitation Type

none

Snowpack

Obs Type

summary

Site Aspect

SW, W, S

Site Elevation

1700

Site Elevation Band

tln

Surface Conditions

newSnow, crust, variable

A dense and icy surface crust varying from 1/2" to 2" thick was present from the trailhead (1,350m) to about 1,650m on W, SW, and S aspects. These aspects appeared to be heavily wind affected from recent storms with dozens of downed trees noted, particularly on W aspects. S aspects were solar affected, and likely experienced quite a bit of surface melt over the last few days as freezing levels rose. A few cm of fresh snowfall was present above the surface crust from 1,650m to about 1,750m. This rapidly increased to 15-20cm of dry powder above 1,750 to the summit (1,908m), with minimal buried surface crust layer noted at these upper elevations.