Ski partners…they are hard to come by. Or, maybe I’m wrong. There’s plenty of ski partners out there. Mellow mood ski partners, go big ski partners, big group ski partners, and bad ski partners. I guess, there’s a plethora of skiing buddies in South Central Alaska. Maybe what I’m talking about are those go to people, your core crew of riders who, when the time comes, know exactly what you are thinking; who at the nod of a head understand when it’s a go, or time to high tail it out of there. Most of all, it’s the people you trust with your life, because at times, skiing can literally be more life and death than pow turns and PBR’s.
I’ve been skiing with a lot of different people lately. And, while it’s actually been quite fun and energizing, keeping the dedicated Hatcher crew has been difficult. It’s windy, the snow is thin, there’s minimal storm skiing (that you know of) and well, people have jobs. I guess that’s the difference between skiing professionally, and being a professional that skis. For most of us, skiing isn’t the sweet life portrayed in lifestyle shots and endless sections of ski porn and patagucci ads. The reality is a lot different, and for those of you reading this, I probably don’t need to write it, because you know.
 Being a professional that skis (the only kind of pro skiers that I know) means accepting shitty light and thin snow, understanding that some skiing is better than no skiing, and waking your happy ass up at 6:30 AM to get out and beat all the other warriors to the leftover fresh from the mid week storm. These are good ski partners…don’t take them for granted. I skied 4 0f the 5 last days, everyday with different partners. Today held good snow with horrible light and I actually began bitching about it. Shame on me. SHAME. Here’s to the professional working skiers, and to me keeping my spoiled rotten, powder filled, ski bum mouth shut. Here’s to skiing!
As for snow conditions, there’s a myriad of conditions out there, but decent to excellent skiing as well. Friday we storm skied lower gov and ran into a whole crew of local folks. It was puking snow, but with temps around 5-10 degrees, the snow density was extremely light. Saturday and Sunday saw us skiing off the peak of Marmot, down the western gullies above the A Frame. Great snow.
The windslab is still obvious in many windward locations, but on the west and southwest slopes, there seemed to be significant leeward loading, and the skiing was bottomless and blower (except for a few rocks). I only dug a small hand pit on saturday morning. The windslab seems to be bonding pretty well to the layer of lighter snow below it. It took a lot of strength to get the slab and column to shear off, and when it did, the failure was still of q3 quality. The lingering windslab from last weak is pretty unreactive, but could still be a problem if we get heavier snow. The snow below the 11/17 windslab is showing signs of faceting, so as the storm snow piles up this week, keep in eye out.
A temperature inversion on Saturday brought calm winds, clear skies above 1000′ and temps in the 10-15 range. No obvious signs of natural avalanches occurring during or after the storm, but there were a few cornice breaks above gullies on the upper western face of marmot (probably my biggest concern). The new snow was extremely light, and considering the rate of precipitation, the snowpack seems to be adjusting well. There’s a huge storm system moving in from the South and tracking to the west over the next few days. NWS issued a special weather statement for the South Central Area. The temps are supposed to rise Wednesday night, but hopefully we stay cold enough to keep it all snow. Hope everyone had an amazing thanksgiving, and hope to see you at Attack of La Nina this Friday!
