A beautiful Thursday morning told me to get after it.  A nip in the air, as I parked in the lot, indicated that  a  tour to the Twins might be in order.  I hustled out of the locker room and made a bee line to the Forklift chair to start the day out right.  I  put together a small party and mounted up.   Winds on the peak were moving briskly and the Temp. was a lot warmer than I had hoped.  A quick check into Mineral Basin found that the south aspects had already had become too soft to traverse the East Pass.  Adding that to the significant wind from the north, left no alternative than to bag the tour and stay in area.  Grooming had been significantly expanded overnight, covering all the old usual standbys.  The warm morning had left all the elevations spring time smooth and delicious.  The North wind held the warming effects down, so a much longer window was happening of all fronts.  Mineral was the first to go away, but the front had lots of time to stay fresh before the saturation hit the wall.  No waiting for a thaw, as it was good to go  where ever.  By 1:00 PM the slush factor got fully engaged and the off trail was happening if you were so inclined.  The glue spots were sparse and not too much of a hindrance , though the straight up cat tracks became intermittent with a major loss of glide.  The open terrain is smooth and workable in the soft state.  The West exposures have major wet slide and goo ball damage.  Hit one of those toasters or micowaves and your day is over, guaranteed!!  Take  a tour around and scout the exposures before heading off trail to avoid an unpleasant descent.  Tomorrow will be more of the same, so I am going to be there early and make a game plan then.  First Tram rocks!!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 1:59 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.