Stellar Day

Map for Mountain Information Network report: Stellar Day

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:
OK
Snow conditions were:
  • Crusty
  • Hard
  • Wind affected
We rode:
  • Alpine slopes
  • Convex slopes
  • Mellow slopes
  • Steep slopes
  • Sunny slopes

Information

The day was:
  • Cold
  • Sunny

Comments

Today we went to Mt. West. The little snow that did fall from the last storm was mostly blown away leaving exposed areas at tree line and alpine scoured back to the most recent crust from the middle of February. This made for variable riding, and we had multiple spin outs during the day. We saw an older wind slab avalanche from roughly a week a go and some more recent wind slabs from the last day or so. These were very small with only 10-15cm of snow that had been deposited by wind at, and just below rollovers in the terrain. We took advantage of some smaller “test slopes” to trigger more wind slabs with our sleds. For now, these small avalanches aren’t a hazard, with more snow and wind they will get bigger and have a nice icy surface to slide on.