Sastrugi Central
What's worse than a refreeze following 3 weeks of warm, dry weather? A refreeze following 3 weeks of warm, dry weather accompanied by howling winds, that's what.
Winds honked across the Wasatch Front yesterday, gradually increasing in intensity throughout the day (the Snowbird Tram ran early in the day yesterday, but eventually halted operation due to the westerly winds). Overnight temps returned to more seasonable levels for today, so what we had was refrozen crud on western aspects and any aspect with a southerly component, and wind-scoured styrofoam sastrugi on the best of the northerly aspects. Groomers were rock-hard and fast. In sum, it was a disappointing day snow surface-wise.
But there's still plenty of it, and the next chance for significant precipitation is next weekend. A foot of new will make things primo again. And the sky was the clearest that I've ever seen here, so today was ideal for just being out in the mountains and taking pictures -- the views were stupendous, as you can see for yourself below.
Most locals stayed home today, but with friends visiting (Liftlines user Sharon and her friend Pam, along with Sharon's local friend Amy) I went up canyon anyway. We spent the day trying to find the most skiable lines. Our first effort was one of the best successes, taking Road to Provo and then traversing, way, way out to a line directly below West Twin. There we encountered heavily wind-scoured, yet edgeable snow, although the potential for a long slide if you blew it was huge.
At the time, we were frustrated by the snow on that run, but it turned out to be one of the best runs of the day. Our second effort was out to the Bookends in Mineral Basin, and amazingly the wind erased all evidence of parts of the traverse line, so we were forced to hang on by only our narrow metal edges to the hard, smooth snow. The Bookends run itself was reiminscent of our line below West Twin.
We kept hoping that the south-facing aspects in Mineral Basin would soften in the sun. They never did. In fact, what slight softening occurred before lunch time had already set back up by early afternoon. Primrose Path was edgeable, but we didn't have the cajones to drop into any of the steeper north-facing lines in Peruvian Cirque. A diversion into one of my favorite steep tree lines off Dalton's Draw left me slightly spooked, as I pictured the potential for a slide and subsequent pinball through the trees if I blew a turn.
I called it a day by 2:30 pm after 15,000 verts. Snow cover is hardly the problem, and again, all it will take is 1 storm to return conditions to a wonderful state.
