Pinto Mountain

Quick report

Weather

sunny

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, denseTrees, mellowSlopes, openTrees, steepSlopes, sunnySlopes

Stayed Away

convexSlopes

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

crusty, hard, powder, windAffected

Travelled up to Pinto mountain after making to just past the 12km mark on the road. Could make it further with optimism and chains. ~40cm at 1400m. Travel is quick up the road with a firm crust that transitions to a semi breakable crust around 1500m until getting to the hiking trail where the surface became highly variable. Solar aspects have a 2-5cm MFcr with old WL/pinwheeling debris on anything over 30 degrees. Polar aspects were 10-20cm of facets with a supportive midpack below, which is were the skiing was found. In upper TL and above the wind created small windskins but no actual windslabs were noted. Saw lots of evidence of old avalanches likely in the last major warm up with lots of WL out of rocky terrain and a few crowns on E'ly aspects. No other evidence of instability other then the old debris Overall was a good adventure but not great skiing. 6/10 would do again.

Avalanche

Run Length

100

Trigger Type

natural

Wind Exposure

noWindExposure

Avalanche Size

1.5

Start Zone Aspect

E, S, SE, SW, W

Vegetation Cover

openSlope

Avalanche Character

looseWet, persistentSlab

Crust Near Weak Layer

1

Number Of Avalanches

1

Avalanche Observation

moreThan48hrsAgo

Weak Layer Crystal Type

surfaceHoar, surfaceHoarAndFacets

Start Zone Elevation Band

alp, btl, tln

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2026-01-20T17:00:00.000Z