Cold, sunny, and spectacular? There's a Mt Apps for that.

We meandered our way up the labyrinth to Mt Apps today to get a final look at the snowpack before the next storm rolls in. We found more of the same light, dry powder in sheltered areas all the way up to treeline. The biggest notable in these areas was the large new surface hoar we found glimmering on the snow surface. Not a welcome sight in advance of the storm. Once at treeline, the recent bout of North wind was very evident. Exposed north aspects were badly scoured and lee aspects held small pockets of wind slab. For the most part, these were not reactive to ski cutting. It seems that part of the reason was the transported snow had mainly come to rest on low angled rather than steep slopes. Direct sun was a key ingredient to the pockets we did manage to trigger.