Skied up Gulf Of Slides this morning. At 9:30AM it was 19 degrees and mostly sunny at PNVC. Only a few diehards were headed up GOS. I eventually caught up with a skier and rider hiking up on snowshoes, and another rider from Portland, also on snowshoes, caught up with me near the top. In spite of the temps in the teens, the snow was softening a little in the sun.
Pretty much untracked powder on the way up; only an uptrack, and two skier's/rider's downhill tracks visible from Saturday. Two or three inches of new snow filled in yesterday's tracks somewhat. I was hopefull for powder conditions, since the hourly Obs report showed low winds last night, and they had measured 4.5" of new snow on the Summit.
The Obs forecast was for clearing skies, with increasing wind and temps dropping afternoon. Sure enough, wind started to blow snow off the trees just before Noon, as we reached the first Boot Spur gully and the 1st First Aid cache. Out came all those extra layers stowed in the pack, and we continued to the end of the trail and 2nd cache. After surveying the scene, it did not appear there had been any recent natural avalanche activity. There were no debris piles in the gullies, which led me to think either the snow got scoured out, or it's all still up there waiting for a trigger.
The rider from Portland and I broke a trail through the trees in a drainage to skier's left of Left Gully, rather than hike up the slide path. It was rough going in the deep snow, and we quit about one-third of the way up. It was deep, but there's still not much snow up there; no tree-wells to worry about, as my 48" ski pole hit bottom several times. The trees had not filled in much, and were too tight to afford a decent downhill run, so we decided to cut back through the trees into the Left Gully. We were below the start zone, and decided to take our chances.
We ended up having a great, though short powder run down the bottom of the gully, and the runout back to the cache at the ski trail. There we met another skier on AT gear who had just come up. In hindsight, I think we were overly cautious ascending through the trees, but better to live and ski another day. The snow rangers had Tucks posted as High, and the GOS gullies had to be the same, at least
Expecting a great powder run back down GOS ski trail, I was disappointed to find that four skier/riders had descended before us. Between their 4 tracks and the up-track, the trail was completely cut up. Halfway down, the snow that had softened in the morning sun was now setting up in the colder temps and shadows. All in all, it was still a great run, but those 4 guys who turned around early got the real goods!
Pretty much untracked powder on the way up; only an uptrack, and two skier's/rider's downhill tracks visible from Saturday. Two or three inches of new snow filled in yesterday's tracks somewhat. I was hopefull for powder conditions, since the hourly Obs report showed low winds last night, and they had measured 4.5" of new snow on the Summit.
The Obs forecast was for clearing skies, with increasing wind and temps dropping afternoon. Sure enough, wind started to blow snow off the trees just before Noon, as we reached the first Boot Spur gully and the 1st First Aid cache. Out came all those extra layers stowed in the pack, and we continued to the end of the trail and 2nd cache. After surveying the scene, it did not appear there had been any recent natural avalanche activity. There were no debris piles in the gullies, which led me to think either the snow got scoured out, or it's all still up there waiting for a trigger.
The rider from Portland and I broke a trail through the trees in a drainage to skier's left of Left Gully, rather than hike up the slide path. It was rough going in the deep snow, and we quit about one-third of the way up. It was deep, but there's still not much snow up there; no tree-wells to worry about, as my 48" ski pole hit bottom several times. The trees had not filled in much, and were too tight to afford a decent downhill run, so we decided to cut back through the trees into the Left Gully. We were below the start zone, and decided to take our chances.
We ended up having a great, though short powder run down the bottom of the gully, and the runout back to the cache at the ski trail. There we met another skier on AT gear who had just come up. In hindsight, I think we were overly cautious ascending through the trees, but better to live and ski another day. The snow rangers had Tucks posted as High, and the GOS gullies had to be the same, at least
Expecting a great powder run back down GOS ski trail, I was disappointed to find that four skier/riders had descended before us. Between their 4 tracks and the up-track, the trail was completely cut up. Halfway down, the snow that had softened in the morning sun was now setting up in the colder temps and shadows. All in all, it was still a great run, but those 4 guys who turned around early got the real goods!