Burdette Cabin/Onion

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy

Avalanche conditions

• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Rode at the Onion up to Burdette Cabin. Road up was rocky and snow was sparse. The meadows between the Old Onion cabin site and Burdette Cabin were fun with fair coverage, creeks are still wet and some are exposed from lack of cold, but due to lack of cold the snowpack is not completely faceted yet. noticed 3 surface hoar layers in sheltered terrain, and Basal facets forming on rocky terrain. whumping in the snowpack when walking around, again in more sheltered terrain at treeline, probably at the 75cm surface hoar layer. Surface hoar on the surface starting to form from the clear cold night before, and lots of extreme cross loading anywhere sheltered enough to catch snow in the alpine, but most of the snow conditions up high were bare.

Overall fun day but lots of riding hazard like rocks, creeks, and anywhere there was a little Christmas tree farm, it was hard to get traction once you broke into the lower part of the snowpack. The snowpack felt very firm, but I could see if you trigger the right swallow spot at the end of a loaded sheltered feature, possibly ripping out a slab on the 75cm surface hoar layer.