HatchYourTrax

Hey all…I just wanted to give a quick snow condition update.  Found some pretty horrible results on west facing aspects friday. The sun came out, it warmed up and  I conducted two extended column tests that both failed on the backcuts.  I was on lower microdot, below a rollover on a 32 degree slope.  The snow was about 105-120cm deep, and the columns failed 35cm down from the top, both times.  This had me on edge a bit so Erin and I tried out a different aspect today. There was also a small ice crust 1-2 inches down from the top (which as of today is probably buried even deeper). Sorry for the dirty lens!

Today, we aimed to ski a gully off of El Dorado. We ran in to some folks who’d found only moderate to hard results on thursday and friday and todays’ extended and isolated column tests, at about 25-30 degrees, showed similar results.  The new snow is not bonding well on the east facing aspects, and was sloughing off very easily.  After “sloughing” off the new snow, our pit results were ECT24/Q3 for the extended and no failure for the isolated column. Erin skied our 35-40 degree chute first, and conducted a successful ski cut that let loose a loose snow slough about 30ft wide, 8″ deep, and ran a few hundred feet.  My slough was nowhere near as significant, but it does show how variable the hatcher snowpack is right now.

Not huge, but with the low viz today, we were lucky to ski it at all

It’s really variable out there, and the ice crust I mention in the video below is now buried probably close to 8+ inches down. Total new snow as of this afternoon (thursday to saturday) seemed to be around 12″ or more up high.  There’s more snow on the way, so get stoked! Man it’s nice to post pictures of the home turf again!