Headed up the 93N today with Anna Elkins and Kaitlin Paris to go for a recon walk.
After heading up the forest on Cirque Forepeak we decided to instead head towards the south aspect of Observation Sub Peak. We skinned up the ridge line to about 2600m and skied back down to the creek. We followed the valley out and traversed over to the west aspect of Cirque Forepeak at treeline and out via the forest.
Great dry powder fluff snow everywhere we went today, even in the alpine. The magical snow was sitting on top of either a temp ice crust in shaded areas or a solar crust on the upper south aspect slopes of Observation Sub Peak. Both crusts made the skinning and skiing very supportive and the crust was a day saver in the forest. I didn’t find too many places where the snow under the crust was facetted, in fact the crust was basically on the ground in most places I poked at. Everyone seems to be scared of this layer but remember in some places it’s going to make for really great skiing (trees) – you can’t shred the gnar every day but can ski something super fun every day.
Only a bit of wind in the mid-afternoon, lots of crazy cloud layers and light snowfall at times. Snow depths are low (well not for early Nov) but the crust provides excellent support for skinning/skiing. 20-30cm in the forest and an average of 50-60cm in the alpine.
