Yesterday I went for a quick tour up in Aspendell to get a little fresh air and check on conditions. I arrived at the parking zone to find temps of 42F, light rain, and erratic winds.
The view from the car. The normal exit from Bishop Bowl right of center. Definitely low tide here still.
I call this the "mini golf" zone due to all the cool, albeit short, features. I skinned up the bowl to the tall trees at the base of the headwall.
I was fairly well sheltered from the strong southwest winds, but the constant roar reminded me that it was howling over the ridges. Looking across canyon to Table Mountain/Jawbone Canyon.
Northeast to Aspendell. Lots of rocks showing, but coverage wasn't much of an issue on the descent. Snow quality was a mixed bag though. I found fair skiing on the old rain crust and poor skiing on the soggy drifts of newer snow.
Proud and defiant.
No pot of gold for a skier. Nice to get out though.
The entire snow pack (up to ~60cm) was saturated. The stout rain crust I found at Habeggars on my last tour was decidedly weaker, but still supportable on skis. The next storm is forecast to bring one to two feet of new snow here. Bring it!
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