Skied a chill lap on Observation Sub Peak South Ridge/Face area with Kieran Crimeen, Caroline Gleich and Rob Lea today.
We headed up the forest of Cirque Forepeak, wrapped around the west ridge and into the treeline valley. Followed a skin track up along the ridge to around 2600m or so before skiing one of the micro fetch gullies and down into the glade area. To exit we followed the skin track back down onto Cirque Forepeak and through the forest back to the road.
Felt pretty cold at the road mid morning, we started skinning just after 10am. Warmer as we went up and again no wind but less sun than yesterday. The lower forest snow has been sucked dry of moisture and is thin and skinning up steeper side hill sections was a bit tricky at times. Once at treeline the depths have improved since I was in the area last. The lower glade area is still thin compared to mid-season but the skiing is supportive. The alpine micro fetch benches had great snow except for some hints of solar crust in steeper direct south aspects. You can still hit rocks but if you ski light on your feet it probably won’t be an issue.
