Weekend Snow

Sharatin and Kizhuyak bay

This past weekend the sun finally came out.  Prior to that it had been raining and warm for a solid week.  We lost a lot of snow down low in the mountains, but above above 1500 feet we actually gained a bit.  Still, the lower parts of the mountains seem more like they do in late April rather than March. This has been a warm winter.

Up high the skiing is as good as it has been all year.  Saturday evening on Pyramid was all spring corn snow.  Then on Sunday I climbed up into the big bowl on Sharatin and went skate skiing on the crust.  The skate skiing was excellent until the sun came out.  Prior to the sunshine the crust was firm and fast, but once it came out the crust softened and my skis started to punch through the crust.  Still I found that if I maintained a high rate of speed I could stay up on top of the crust.

The lifting clouds and swirling thermals lit up in the sunshine was very dramatic.  And there is the ocean seemingly just below.  Sharatin is a very dramatic place to ski.  Patrick

Dale booting up Pyramid Saturday evening