Thursday, April 3, 2014

Pow at Top Of the World in April 2nd 2014

Super FUN day at Pilot Peak!  Nature continues to be bountiful.
Top of The World - Pilot Peak

No need to add words. The picture and video shared above tells it all.

The buried weak layers  created by thin rain crusts in top of cold snow are sintering well, not a surprise considering the significant short term loading of 70-90cm for the last three storms, combined with snow temps in the -4 to 0 degrees celsius. East aspects produced resistant planar fracture quality results (Q2) with moderate trigger scores  (CT11-20). No evidence of propagation was found. At 7800 feet East aspects the new snow load since last Wednesday March 26 was 90 cms.

At 7600 feet North and Northeast aspects the new snow load since last Wednesday March 26 was 70 cms. Only broken fracture planes under scores in the hard end were produced. Pretty surprising results!

The snow is sintering very well in top of last Sunday snow. In addition, no signs of natural releases were observed either. The new snow was deposited in what appears to be during a period of light Northwest winds. More northerly aspects had 20-25 cms of soft pow, and aspects with more East had 25-30 cms of the soft stuff. Typical of this time of the year, at lower elevations (below 6500 feet) the snow was impacted by the bright and warm effects of the sun.  As we skied out in the afternoon, the snow was densifying. However, it is reasonable to expect crusty conditions by Thursday. The trick for the next days will be to search for high elevation snow at protected slopes with N & NE aspects.

Below pics of Almost top of the world. As noted earlier the snow was more plentiful, but also softer than at Top of the World.


As we skied out via the Knob, we were reminded how much different the snowpack is this year. Skiing out through the Summit Creek was easy! After three years of spartan amount of snow at lower elevations, it feels good to JUST ski out without having to bush wack at the creek bottoms.