Hanging Lake

Quick report

ngottlieb · Jan 18, 2019 · Brandywine

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Quick report

Weather
wet, stormy, warm, foggy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
steepSlopes
Riding Quality
OK
Snow Conditions
wet
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionTemp, avalancheConditionSlab

20-25 new at the lake and above. Seemed to have come in upside down, light and fluffy at the bottom (on the crust), though I think the warm temps today were helping it bond. We found extremely variable reactivity -- some slopes nothing moved, even cutting unsupported convexities. On other slopes (same aspect, elevation) it was super touchy and we (intentionally) triggered size 0.5-1 storm slabs, even remotely triggering a small slab from ~20m away that jumped over the staunchwall. A little weird out there today -- my working theory is that slopes that had been skied pretty hard prior to the warm cycle were less reactive because the crust surface was not as smooth. Terrible vis all day unfortunately. Didn't get an air temp up at the lake, it was +3 at the parking lot.