Hammil Cirque

Another day in the Mammoth Lakes Basin. I wanted to get up into the alpine territory above Hammil Lake and see what kind of damage recent winds did to the snow.

There's something about winter forest scenes I really like.

The terrain above Hammil Lake.

Nice alpine scenery.

The cirque. There was a boot pack up to the col. A bit tempting but alas no.

Poor light but great rock formations.

The view down from my high point. "Interesting" skiing on a mix of breakable crust, windboard, and wind eroded soft snow for a few hundred feet.

This zone actually skied quite well.

Evidence.

I was a bit surprised how much the winds affected the snow lower in the trees. What had been nice soft snow on Tuesday now has a crust. Only the most wind sheltered areas still held good snow.

To make things worse, warm temps were creating heavy, sticky conditions below about 9500'.

We need another storm!