No new snow in 10 days and 10 days of high wind, high temps, and lots of sun. Not a good combination for powder skiing. We hiked up Taylor to a big bowl at about 9,200′ with a north east aspect.
Lots of untracked, dense, sun and wind affected snow. Because the low angle slopes had the best snow, we did 3 laps there. But the snow was mediocre at best, so we decided to make it a short day and save some energy for the coming storm.
We exited down a long, forested ridge into Moose Creek. The top third of the ridge was OK, but too forested to get in any good skiing. The bottom two thirds had a shallow snowpack with lots of logs and brush to make it very challenging to get out. Plus, at about 7500′, we ran into light rain and sticky, concrete snow that was almost impossible to turn in; it was like skiing with skins on. Except we didn’t have skins on. Add the logs and thick brush, and you’ve got a knee-wrenching adventure.
We made it out OK, but I don’t recommend exiting into Moose Creek until there is two more feet of base.
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