Pyramid and Upper Buskin February 2018

[patrick]

Time to resurrect the snow forum! People have been asking me about the snow conditions and I have been emailing them back. far easier just to put them on the snow forum. But I had forgotten my password. I tried a bunch and finally got it to work. I will remain Ullr.

Anyway, Pyramid is excellent. They finally plowed the road today. Yesterday I skinned up from the switchbacks and found it was blown off on top between the north and south bowls, but excellent in the south bowl and on the three tree run. I assume the jibber bowl would still be excellent, but I'd be worried the sun would have put a crust on the south bowl powder.

As regards the upper buskin and golf course - firm conditions. Great for crust cruising on skate skis, but only OK for classic. But there is plenty of snow and even the rocky areas of the river Bottom on the upper Buskin are well covered. However, the upper canyon is no longer accessible. Last week was great but in Monday's storm a great many of the ice bridges collapsed and you can no longer even get to the downed cottonwood across the river at the entrance to the lower canyon. But the river to the lake is GREAT. Patrick

[patrick]

Well the good news is that they graded the road to the pass - the bad news is that as of 2 pm it was a raging ice storm on high. I only made it to 1800 ft and all freezing rain. Screaming wind up high. Ice 1/4 inch thick on still dry snow down well into the jibber. Eroded drifts above the jibber. Bad conditions. Below the jibber just wet snow and really not all that bad (still not too wet). Zipper crust in the jibber. Mixed precip on the drive home down to the switchbacks. Patrick

[Philip]

Thanks for posting and doing the updates. I’m not terribly surprised by the lack of activity here given the conditions of late, but we are having somewhat of a winter again so maybe folks will start to check in.

Cheers,
Philip

[patrick]

There is 6-8 inches of heavy slush at the road and the good news is that they plowed the road but there is no place to park!

The skiing was not very good - no powder as I was hoping. It is snowing above the knob, but very wet and drifted. Wet all the way up to the top too. Variable conditions - slow drifts then patches of breakable crust on old powder. Horrific areas of wind eroded drifts. The top of the north bowl was good - smooth with a 1/2 inch of new snow adhering to it. South bowl was BAD breakable ice on the snow from earlier in the week. You could still see Tuesday’s tracks. beaver pond run was actually pretty good!

We need new snow or there will be a lot of boilerplate when it freezes. Patrick

[patrick]

Golf course froze solid but is not boilerplate. Quite good skate skiing, but probably only for today! Fast conditions, but you can edge in pretty well too.

[patrick]

Monday 2/12 On Pyramid below the creek crossing @1200 feet above sea level it is deep spring corn, jibber is breakable crust and variable, and above that boilerplate. The south bowl was carvable and soft from the sun in places, and the 3 tree run EXCELLENT. But it will all be ice tomorrow!

The golf still has a lot of snow and it would be good cross country skiing at the pass. Tomorrow I think I'll be crust cruising in skate skis!

[patrick]

2/16. I intended to xc ski at the golf course but the snow seemed wet so I went up to the pass to down hill ski instead. 5-6 inches of new dry snow at the pass, but not great skiing. And beware! Limited parking!

On the mountain everything is all blown off with bad vis above the jibber. Even jibber pretty wind effected. But still some very good seams of powder. Below the jibber you could ‘feel’ the ruts and ice. If I had to do it all over again I would have gone classic XC skiing at the pass!

And tomorrow once it freezes up good tonight the golf course and upper Buskin should be excellent!

[patrick]

Monday 19th of February,

Well the powder on the knolls above the ski chalet is all gone - this is where I took Nora yesterdays and there was 5 inches of powder everywhere. But not today!

Ice fog and yesterday’s warm temps have created a crust. Awful skate skiing. So I went back down and went up pyramid on tele gear. The front side is all awful crust and ruts. So bad I literally saw people hiking down carrying their gear. But the south bowl I Sublime sun warmed corn snow. To die for. Admire my tracks on your drive up! The 3 tree is skied out but not too bad on the skier’s left and somewhat soft at 2:30.

Only downside or plus side is that the SEALS just showed up in force! I kind of like skinning up past them, and they will not be skiing in the south bowl.