Pyramid January 2017

[patrick]

Friday the 13th. I went up around 2PM and there was an inch of slush at the parking lot and mixed precip. All snow by the knob and around 5inches of new heavy, wet stuff in the jibber. Up high more wind effected and riming like crazy. All the bamboo wands had a 1/2 inch of ice on them, and rime was forming on my ski poles. Jibber was pretty good skiing, but will probably be icy tomorrow and you'll have my ruts to avoid!

Road is actually pretty good. New slush on the road from the switchback on so something to grip and not water on ice.

Patrick

[jeffreyg]

Thanks Patrick!

[Philip]

DJ posted a couple of pics from Pmid today on FB that looked decent, though I have no direct knowledge of the conditions:

[patrick]

I went up late yesterday (1/14) and a dusting at the end of the storm adhered to the crust. Not bad conditions. Up high there is even some good conditions. I talked to people coming out of the North bowl and it is good with 2 to 3 inches of carvable stuff. from the road you could see tracks going into the south bowl. So decent but not great conditions.

Patrick

[Philip]

Monday Jan 16

Today was cold and slightly breezy on Pmid. The snow on most of the mountain was wind-affected, but not bad. There are pockets of wind-packed powder (or to be more accurate, wind slab) to be found on lee slopes (southerly) and in gulleys and low spots. The lower half of the mountain and especially below the Jibber are crusty chunk. Not icy, but not smooth either. I triggered a small avy in the South Bowl of wind slab on the rollover on skier's right of the gut, so unstable wind slabs do exist up there. I didn't look into the North Bowl opting for the sunny side. Since the weather is supposed to stay pretty stable with cold westerlies until late in the week, conditions on the mountain should remain status quo. New unstable wind slabs will form on lee slopes just below the ridges, so keep that in mind: that nice untracked, non-crusty snow at the top of the bowls may not be well anchored. Dress for a nippy wind in any case. Oh, and the road is almost comically icy from the golf course on. Drive very carefully!

Top of the South Bowl:



The runout below the gut:



The slide I triggered. The highest part of the crown face is approximately 18":

[johns]

Glad your safe Philip. We went up just after you and checked out the slide. Start zone was right at 38 degrees and biggest crown face was just under 70cm. Just for fun we did an extended column test and found the snow to be pretty reactive with a result of ECTP12 with failure occurring on what looked to be buried hoarfrost. Stay safe.

[Philip]

Thursday Jan 19.

I heard the road to the pass has been graded and sanded, but the conditions on Pmid are deteriorating due to the wind eroding snow and exposing the old crust.

[johns]

Tried to go somewhere different today and headed up Sheratin via Red Cloud. Road is graded/plowed to end of road and in decent shape. We retreated just shy of 2000' after experiencing several woomphing areas of snow and pretty reactive snow pits on south east exposures. (ECTP15). Didn't want to get on anything steep so we skied the brush and breakable crust back to the car and headed out the road. Got to the end of the road at low tide and was able to skate around the bay to the boat ramp and head of Anton's on the frozen ice. It was pretty decent conditions and didn't see any open water or areas of concern. Just be sure to hit the bay at low tide as high tide raises the ice and creates some open cracks at the shoreline.

[Philip]

Saturday, Jan 21

I went up Pmid this morning and the light was flat. There is more new snow in town than on the mountain, but conditions are okay. There is a pretty uniform 3" of new snow in most places, though it may be more wind-affected higher and in exposed areas. I didn't go above the Jibber Bowl due to the flat light before noon. You can cut down to the old crust on most turns, but the new snow freshened things up enough to be pleasant. The weather this afternoon is turning spectacular, and I probably went up too early. No idea what the upper bowls are like, but the Jibber was fun enough for 3 laps. The road is in good shape for low clearance AWD vehicles, and there is plenty of parking. Go get some.

[Philip]

Sunday Jan 22

The North Bowl on Pyramid is excellent right now. A pretty uniform 4-6" of light storm snow over a slight crust in the gut. Basically hero snow. The headwall below the summit is a bit wind-eroded and not as nice. I did two laps there and then came down via the South Bowl, which was not as nice. It is more wind-affected and inconsistent. I finished down 3 Tree which has a few salmonberries sticking up and gets increasingly crusty and lumpy as you descend to the road, but it is totally skiable and a bit more fun than coming down the face below the Jibber back to the parking lot. If anyone is still headed up this afternoon, do yourself a favor and check out the North Bowl.

[patrick]

1/24 I went up this afternoon and it is pretty good. Hellacious snow squall at the parking lot around 1:30 and it was a total whiteout. But then it totally cleared off and was bluebird by the time I got to the jibber bowl. It looks like it got wet to the top of the jibber but the new snow stuck to everything and it was fast to the parking lot. Up high it looks like there was lots of drifting and rime. But the new snow is quite nice on top and the northwest facing slope at the top had deep snow but you did not sink very deep. The North bowl ought to be excellent. But I did not dare try and lose my bluebird hole.

The road never got plowed yesterday and is slush on ice - not too bad and it probably would have been worse if it HAD been plowed. Worst part is the antenna field actually where it is almost water on ice.

Patrick

[patrick]

1/26 Ryan and I went up around 1:30 and it was snowing at the parking lot. The road is pretty icy until you get to the switchbacks but there is snow on the road after that and it is pretty good driving.

Wet slush at the parking lot but pretty dry and good above 700 feet. Wind is blowing pretty hard out of the east. I did set off a small slab in the jibber bowl - so be careful of those wind loaded slopes! Even, as i learned, the small ones!

Yesterday it was very wet snow in the jibber and I think it froze yesterday evening and then after midnight it was all powder onto the frozen surface. And now it is blowing.

Ryan and I found excellent 'tree skiing' down from the jibber towards Antons and on the beaver pond run. The best snow is down low. Patrick

Just above the Spruce Knob and crossing the creek to climb the Jibber:



Slab avy on the ridge to the right of the creek and skin track climbing the jibber:

[Philip]

Saturday Jan 28

The road up the pass starting at the antenna field/Buskin Lake is atrocious. A thick sheet of slick ice. I took one look at the switchbacks and said f**k that. Just FYI.

The bottom of the switchbacks:

[patrick]

2/13 Road is awful. Water on ice, and is even really bad in from the highway to the Com STA. I just kept on hoping it would turn to snow on ice and finally turned around before the little rise at the start of the Upper Buskin trails. Still water on ice and there was even ice on what had been dirt yesterday morning. So BAD conditions.

Patrick

[patrick]

2/14 I went up this afternoon and the road was not as bad as I expected. It is good until the golf course and then pretty bad until the switchbacks (ice with water). From the 2nd curve of the switchbacks on up there is crusty snow on the road and traction is good. The lower part of the switchbacks is not good but there is some texture on it. I did some sharp stops after I crossed the bridge before the switchbacks to get a feel for the traction, and there is some. Actually the little hill before the switchbacks is worse. There I did almost lose it (my car does not have studs)

Anyway, the snow is worthwhile. An inch or so of new stuff at the parking lot on top of a soft crust. Good seams of powder up high. Some crusty spots too. North bowl was really very good. Wind was blowing too - so it looks like drifting is occurring.
Patrick