Snowpack in upper LCC, Oct 26

[alto]

disclaimer -forgot camera in car
I went for a ski yesterday in upper LCC. I skinned from Brighton up to Lake Mary, then to Catherine's pass and got an awesome shot on Rocky Point.

The snow was fucked up though, and I almost made the decision to not ski the line I had chosen. RP is mainly N Facing and looked to have been well protected from scouring or loading during the blustery storm as I approached. The NW to W facing aspects below Sunset Peak visually told a much different story. There was obvious wide spread wind scouring, with lots of wave-patterned markings pointing straight up hill. As I got closer, I could see that the wind was still active, blowing snow up and over Sunset to the S/SE.

I was still stoked about my line, but as I got closer, it started to get more complicated. There was already some significant cornices along the ridge (12-18''). They were very sensitive with the first one I approached splitting off by only the force of me approaching, still 5' back. They broke wide and deep when I stomped a couple free, but caused nothing of interest as they moved down slope, other than some surface sluffing.

I had a good slope cut lined up for my run, and it felt solid. I had heard talk of a graupel layer, but I did not take note of it. I next decided to make a turn or two and point across to another safe island. The first turn was completely unexpectedly deep. The chute was stacked! And felt inverted in density. I pointed across to my island, and worked my way down a better protected fall line, rather than center punching what I had picked out from below.

There had been significant crossloading from the NW winds making the middle and bottom of the run just as loaded, or more loaded than the top. I skied back over rocks back down into brighton.

Not until you get to 9,500 or 10,000 feet is there an actual snowpack developing, and it is looking funky.

[Hutch]

Thanks - not totally worthless without pics.