Yessir, it’s snowing out there! For those of you who live under some type of rock or in some type of cubicle…it’s puking in the valley. NWS has issued a winter weather warning for the Matanuska Valley saying an additional 8-15 inches will drop by tomorrow night. Viz at Hatcher is no good and the storm is supposed to stick around for a few more days so we opted for some storm skiing in the trees somewhere in Turnagain.
Originally, we weren’t supposed to get this much snow at all, but it looks like Ullr and his buddies are smiling on us now. With all this new snow don’t forget to check out stability. The snowpack was damn stable before the storm, but it was thin. There was surface hoar forming in the bottoms of valleys, around rocks and in shaded spots. Give the snow a bit of time to adjust to the recent load. One of our sources at the base of the pass said there’s already 12″…which is pretty significant for our shallow snowpack.
While the inches are piling up, the snow water content doesn’t seem very high…which means: BLOWER
In other news, we took part in the AVY 1 course at Hatcher this weekend. Big thanks to Nancy, Sean, Brad and Tucker of Alaska Avalanche School for putting on a great course and providing priceless insight and experience. Here’s a few shots from this weekend.
Check back for more pictures from the AVY 1 Class
