Thursday, December 31, 2020

Two Days in the Blue Crag Area

 I like skiing in the Blue Crag area early season. There's great tree skiing, some fine alpine runs, lots of nooks and crannies, and generally good coverage.

 An unusual storm visited the area Monday blessing us with nearly 36 hours of light snow with little or no wind, piling up to about 8" to 10" in the Mammoth Lakes basin and even more north.

Tuesday I took advantage of the improved conditions and toured in an area I knew would have good coverage and fun tree skiing.

The storm cleared as I reached the top of a small knob that would be high point for the day. The wintery scene was magnificent!


The skiing in the trees proved to be phenomenal!

The next day I followed my skin track up and then pushed into the terrain above treeline.

This broad, open slope looked promising but too many rocks lurked just below the surface, so I turned around here.

Tip toed down, only tapping a couple of rocks lightly, but had no interest in lapping it.

Headed east to some promising looking bowls.


Took two fantastic runs in there.


Last view before the run down to Emerald Lake.


 The snow was so good. Cold, light, with no wind affect. I just wish we had a deeper base to allow some bigger lines to be skied. Can't complain though. Wonderful day with some more storms on the way.

I experienced no cracking or collapsing of the snowpack. I observed no natural avalanches. Pole probing revealed an "upside down" snowpack with very low density facets at the bottom in most locations. The thickness of the facets ranged from zero to about 20cm, however the snowpack was stable with the danger rating at low to moderate.

1 comment:

Bob Shattuck said...

Lovely report, as usual.