Full value with a dash of blue collar

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Powder

We rode:

• Open trees
• Steep slopes

We stayed away from:

• Convex slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Foggy
• Stormy
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

As one may expect, there is very little snow in the forest on the Sugarbowl trail. We were able to ski for most of the first km and had to walk up to 1300m from there before putting skis back on. Snow depth at 1300m is 35cm. Above 1500m, snow depths range from 110cm to 150cm.

Had a look in the snow at the top of Norheim's chute where we had repeated moderate sudden shears down 50cm on 10mm surface hoar. Stepping out of the pit we had a whumpf. We decided not to ski it and carried on back down the shoulder and experienced great skiing in the classic Sugarbowl trees.

Kept skis on down to about 1300m, where the Rhododendron was too fierce to continue and we walked relatively easily down to the truck.