Shames Powder

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, windy

Ride Type

convexSlopes, denseTrees, mellowSlopes, openTrees, steepSlopes

Stayed Away

alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

deepPowder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSnow

Good visibility showed only a few recent storm slab avalanches to Sz 2 (-24 hours). Storm slabs on Geronimo (SE facing, 1300m) to Sz 2. Suspect recent storm interface with crown depth at 25cm. Few ski cuts on NW aspect at 1150m produced Sz 1 storm slabs quickly breaking up and not running far. Skiing was exceptional until about 1050m whereupon thin melt freeze crust (Dec 15) down 25cm started to be felt. Quality was only marginally reduced. Alpine looked to be wind scoured in places with obvious cross loading on the south side of The Dome. While skinning at treeline was easy there were many thin to thick drifts to work through varying from 20-50cm. Quick probe at 950m (Valley Bottom) found 230cm HS with 25cm recent dry storm snow (HST) sitting over a thin but supportive to skis Dec 15 melt freeze crust (MFcr). Dec 7 melt freeze crust (MFcr) is 145cm down.