Fine skiing this afternoon
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
3” of new snow was reported at mid-mountain at 1pm with temperatures in the upper 20’s, while the upper mountain had a temperature around 10F. I feared dust-on-crust conditions up top, but was very pleasantly surprised to find very soft skiing everywhere.
The snow that fell was comprised of very small rimed snow crystals that formed a dense but buoyant surface. Riming occurs when snow crystals fall through a moist cloud layer comprised of supercooled water droplets. These water droplets then freeze on the snow crystal and obscure its original pristine shape. In fact, when the original shape of the crystal is no longer identifiable, the precipitation is referred to as graupel.
My perfunctory first run down Shadows found soft snow and big patches of the 3” of unskied powder. Next over to the Twilight area, of which the first half pretty much skied the same as Shadows. The lower half was warmer and more tilted to whatever sun we had up there this afternoon, and was getting heavy.
Last run I ripped down Sundown lifline, and the tracked up snow skied soft and bouncy and was extremely carveable. Then, up Elkhead to first catch Concentration, and then the last ride up Thunderhead for Vertigo. Both of these runs also skied soft and bouncy, very similar to Sundown liftline. A quick ride up Bashor lift to access See Me, which also skied great, to end the afternoon.
