Pyramid March 2016

[Philip]

We continue to gain snow above 1200'. Despite the general gloomy winter conditions we are experiencing, Pyramid has ample snow starting about halfway up the Jibber Bowl, and the top of the mountain is really very well supplied with the white stuff. It is evenly distributed and really not that wind-affected. You just need to be up there when it isn't frozen hard as a rock and when the visibility isn't zero (yes, I know, a tall order). Normally I would never expect to get corn snow in March, but on a few sunny afternoons I have actually had some lovely runs down the south bowl on hero corn, and on those days when it wasn't frozen hard, the north bowl has been pretty good too. The snow stops quite suddenly at around 1000' elevation, but that still nets you the whole south and north bowl if the surface is rideable. The usual suspects are up there daily, and it's worth a visit if you have an afternoon free and the weather allows. Expect to hike the first pitch up to the Spruce Knob. You can start skinning from the bottom of the Jibber Bowl, and the mountain above that point has lots of coverage. Here are some shots from the past few trips up the mountain.

Steve and Sharon below the summit:



On the ridge headed for the Jibber Bowl:



On another day, climbing with Adelia:



Descending the Jibber Bowl after a few laps in the South Bowl:





The bottom of the North Bowl looking back up today (Wednesday, March 9):



Headed down the North Bowl today:

[Philip]

Saturday March 12

Finally, a sunny day on Pyramid. There was a stiff breeze out of the east and some scuddy clouds moved up the Buskin Valley, but the whole mountain was reasonably warm and uniformly covered in good snow. I did two south bowl runs because the sun was out, but it turns out the better snow was in the north bowl. The south bowl was a little wet and slow while the north bowl was fast and in nice shape. On the way home the Jibber Bowl proved fun and pretty fast too despite the conditions in the south bowl. Tomorrow looks to be another nice day, so if you have been waiting to do some runs, now might be your chance.

[Philip]

Wednesday March 16

I went up Pyramid today and the snow was excellent. A totally uniform layer of about 2" of soft new snow over a minimally defined crust. It was as close to a mountain-wide groomer run as I can imagine. Totally carvable. I rode out the skier's right of the lower end of the north bowl and did a run all the way to the creek in the saddle between Pmid and Bear, and there is even a solid 3' of snow in that pass. Touring over to Bear is easy these days. We do have some precip in the future, but it looks cold enough to still add to our snow total on the mountain. For a terrible winter, it's turning out not to be a bad winter. :^)

[patrick]

Pyramid still very good down to the creek in the jibber with a sharp snow line. The gaping glide crack in the south bowl finally broke and the south bowl is full of avalanche debris. RALLY messed up. Patrick