Wasatch Backcountry Conditions – March 9
Although the Wasatch is still draggin’ ass on snow depth, skiing in the upper elevation backcountry areas has been pretty good. Last weekend we had a slight 2-4″ graupel refresher on top of a supportable crust, which made for some fun, fast powder skiing.
I’ve seen a few photos of people getting after some of the bigger lines, but having skied them in the past during big or normal snow years, things like the East Face of Twin still seem a bit thin, punchy and rocky to me. They are fun in any condition, but even more fun when they’re filled in.
Still, the conditions are almost always better than expected once you get out. The stability seems like it has been trickier than usual to assess this year as the low snowpack and weird weather has created areas of questionable avalanche danger right next to dirt patches.
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Category: current conditions, Random
My take is that thin, punchy, and rocky may be the new normal, which suck*, but is vastly better than ‘completely dry.’ Hopefully this global warming thing turns out to be a fad, but in case it doesn’t, I’d rather ski lines with at least some snow in them. Still, fingers crossed that next year is closer to ‘old normal’ in the snow department.
Do you think the deep lurker slabs consolidated over the weekend in the Cottonwoods finally? Or do I still need to worry about the sleeping dragons?