Lots of roller balls and point releases on southerlies. Hippie Bowl was full of these.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Tincan Common
Final day of a gorgeous weekend teaching for the Alaska Avalanche School. Three groups out today: One on Sunburst that skied the West face, one on Tincan backdoor and one on Tincan Common Bowl. My group toured up Tincan common bowl with open minds to poke around and see what we could ski. We looked into skiing due South next to the snake pit, but on closer inspection, noted active roller balls and a one inch sun crust on the slightly East facing aspect. Decided that skinning up as it warmed would not work. Poked into the North chutes at the top of Tincan Common and found cross-loaded slopes with wind texturing which didn’t speak to us. Ended up skiing Tincan common and then far right trees and still finding good skiing and fresh tracks all the way. Noted that Eddie’s back nine had more tracks than I’ve ever seen back there!
Observer Comments
Weather
Gorgeous, warm, calm , sunny.
Snow surface
Surface hoar started to melt in sun at 1900 ft as it was 2mm by that elevation. Shaded snow in the alpine still held tiny surface hoar but not above 2000 ft. Found a suncrust at top of Tincan trees on SE facing terrain. Ridge top and top of North chutes were wind scoured snow. Sparkle fairy tinkle dust skiing in the surface hoar on descent. Found the largest surface hoar garden I've ever seen at 1400 ft. See photos below.
Snowpack
We didn't dig any pits today
Roller balls into Snake Pit
Suncrust on SE at top of Tincan trees
Gigantic Surface Hoar at 1400 ft.
Looking into Hippie Bowl from Common on Tincan.