Observation: Chugach State Park

I did a short solo tour from Glen Alps to a WSW facing slope off the west shoulder of Little O’Malley. I did not go to the Little O’Malley Gully. Skiing was very good- deep powder turns. Powerline Valley was in and out of the clouds, some actual blue sky, and no wind, while I could see Anchorage was in thick fog still.

The road to Glen Alps was not really plowed, I dragged the bottom of my pickup truck much of the way up the hill. The Glen Alps parking lot was not plowed at all. I had a real shovel with me and spent a lot of time digging myself into the lot and making a parking space for myself.

The Middle Fork Trail is mostly broken out by snowshoers and and moose hunters on skis. Off that route trail breaking is very difficult. I was over knee deep with my fat skis, the moose hunters I saw on XCD skis were hip deep.

The snow above 2000ft was surprisingly dry and light. I could not find any sign of slab formation, very unconsolidated snow pack about 1 meter deep. In some places I could just feel a slight density change in the top 2-3″ from the shift in the storm on Thursday. Otherwise, no slabs, no layers, just loose powder to the ground.
However, I could see lots of evidence of wind effect on the snow on the North-East facing slopes across the valley on Peaks 2-3-4, Flaketop, and Ptarmigan. There are likely new wind slabs over there.