Last Friday was warmer than I had thought, as the hill had been affected by the ambient temperature on all aspects.  Of course, the direct exposures took the brunt of the rays, but the crustifcation of the pack was ubiquitous.  That feature was most evident today, when I went in search of the softest lines, but was only able to find just a few consistently soft shots despite the 2 or 3” of fresh that had fallen over night.  The Groomers were the best bet, after I took several sojourns off trail, but made a hasty retreat back to the prepared surface to keep my knees from rebelling.  Mark Malu offered the best early morning fun, but the Upper Cirque was being frequented, and seemed to provide the smoothest off trail that I was able to observe.  The Crunch Factor was very tricky, with no respite from the hard rumble of the frozen crud underneath the new snow.  The morning was fairly brisk, with a 16Degree peak temperature at 9:00am, so the softening of the pack was going to be slow at best.  Tomorrow,  keep the crust factor in mind as I don’t see any immediate relief until we get more snow.  This time of year is notorious for not holding the quality for long, but look and be patient, as there are always places to find redeeming lines.  The Groomers will be at least smooth and consistent, though the crustiness is resident there as well.  The fresh working of Upper Primrose path stirred up some very nice winter softness, and was a really

Strange Sky

fun feature of the morning, so look for the fresh tills for the still existing winter soft.   Here is a shot I took with some wild rainbow colors and strange cloud formations, very trippy!!  See you in the AM   Ciao!!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 13th, 2011 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Snow Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.