Christmas came early! Lots and Lots of fluffy snow has been dropping for the last two weeks!!! When Joe and his daughter Kelly left Ridgway Hut Sunday morning there was over 4 feet of snow on the roof of the hut. We are now in the second large storm since that time which means....LOTS MORE SNOW!!!! Trail was broke, marked and GPS coordinates recorded up to the Ridgway Hut, up over the pass and down to Blue Lakes Hut and out.
With the advent of fat skis (that we all seem to use these days) the travel over down timber is do-able when tree skiing. These same wide skies allow for good "flotation" in the good snow that lies over the bad snow at the bottom of the snow pack. As all of you know that ski a Continental Snow pack, it is this TG (Temperature Gradient/bad snow) layer that underlies all this very skiable snow on top that provides for the typical unstable/dangerous San Juan snowpack. Please be very careful on what you ski when you are out there. Route selection and good terrain analysis are way more important then digging snowpits and looking for the Red Light/Green Light. If you are a San Juan snowpack skier you KNOW that this unstable TG Layer is ALWAYS down there. THIS IS A GIVEN. It is the collapse of this weak bottom layer that remains the potential unseen killer of skiers clear until late March. Remember if you are a pit digger there are plus/minus factors in the interpretation of the pit that you dig no matter where it is on whatever aspect that you are attempting to analyze. Remember this.
As the snowpack deepens in the multiple layers of all the individual snowstorms and wind events that also create new layers, weaknesses will continue to develop in the upper layers of the pack as the season progresses. Summing it up...you have a weak bottom layer and yet to be formed weak upper level layers that will exist in the San Juans all winter, the same as every winter.
To use an analogy, be like a kayaker running big water dodging the recirculating holes, strainers and other traps.
With the advent of fat skis (that we all seem to use these days) the travel over down timber is do-able when tree skiing. These same wide skies allow for good "flotation" in the good snow that lies over the bad snow at the bottom of the snow pack. As all of you know that ski a Continental Snow pack, it is this TG (Temperature Gradient/bad snow) layer that underlies all this very skiable snow on top that provides for the typical unstable/dangerous San Juan snowpack. Please be very careful on what you ski when you are out there. Route selection and good terrain analysis are way more important then digging snowpits and looking for the Red Light/Green Light. If you are a San Juan snowpack skier you KNOW that this unstable TG Layer is ALWAYS down there. THIS IS A GIVEN. It is the collapse of this weak bottom layer that remains the potential unseen killer of skiers clear until late March. Remember if you are a pit digger there are plus/minus factors in the interpretation of the pit that you dig no matter where it is on whatever aspect that you are attempting to analyze. Remember this.
As the snowpack deepens in the multiple layers of all the individual snowstorms and wind events that also create new layers, weaknesses will continue to develop in the upper layers of the pack as the season progresses. Summing it up...you have a weak bottom layer and yet to be formed weak upper level layers that will exist in the San Juans all winter, the same as every winter.
To use an analogy, be like a kayaker running big water dodging the recirculating holes, strainers and other traps.