Teton conditions....'07/'08

[telehacker]

how is the pass skiing these days ??? the opening day at the ghee did not suck at all> just wondering what every one is finding out there. last week ends wet rain and snow seems to have help stabilze .

[Bart T]

togwotee was awesome today. very nice sugary surface layer yielded super fun turns.

saw evidence of naturals so dug a quick pit at about 10800' on a n facing (and likely windloaded) aspect and had to dig 6' before i hit ground. fortunately, the layers have bonded very well. could not get a shear on my shovel test. (did not saw back of column) saw layers of fist to about 6" down then 1 finger for about another 6", then mostly 4 finger with some 2, down to fist at the ground layer (about 12"). this is from memory, not written notes. sorry.

my guess is that the "naturals" were actually debris from cornice failures.

[homemadesalsa]

Up the Glory bootpack yesterday afternoon- fairly icy- imagine that. Came down the SE ridge- a few good turns but overall not really recommended. For next trip out I'd say to stick to the grassy bowls. Lots of lurking bits of limestone out to grab edges and ptex.

A couple of hand pits around 9200' showed the following: HS (height of snow aka total snow depth) =.5 meter or 1.5 -2 feet, aspect-dependent

• snow surface with more N aspect is wind crust- about 3 cm thick, somewhat breakable/ carvable
•snow surface with E to S aspect is near-surface facets and surface hoar, tinkly, whispery- pretty good skiing but gotta go lightly
• under crust or facets it was about 20 cm of small facets, fist hardness
• then another 20 cm of 1 finger mixed forms and small facets
• and a dense hard rain crust, probably 3-4 cm thick on top of the ground

Weakest layers are today's snow surface and the facets under the wind crust. Continued cold temps will make this another deep slab instability year to worry about. Warm temps and a bit of new snow should start to de-fuse the problems, but it will take time. Current stability is good.

And Bart, any time you do a shovel test you need to cut the back or you can't compare your results to anyone else's.

[Bart T]

thanks salsa ... appreciate the reminder

[Obi-Jong Kenobi]

the tetons are glorious mountains