Around The Nipple

Rode around The Nipple today, for an opportunity to see numerous elevations and aspects. Although temps were warm and the sky was clear, a moderate to strong W/SW wind prevented significant warming of sunny slopes. There was enough snow available for wind transport (likely from the dusting earlier this week), and some very early stages of instability were observed on wind loaded slopes.

Pic 1: Surprisingly good, untracked riding in the area. Both cold and warm slopes had good conditions. About the only exception was in tight trees with refrozen tree bombs.

Pic 2: Cold slopes still held dry snow. Getting off my machine I could step through to facets, but no signs of instability were observed.

Pic 3: Some localized blowing snow near ridgetops.

Pic 4: Very minor cracking through the shallow wind deposited snow. Wind loaded test slopes did not produce concerning results.

Pic 5: On a steep, sunny slope above Lower Blue Lake, right around solar noon. Just enough wet surface snow for reasonable riding, but not enough for wet loose issues. Sunny slopes were consistently exposed to winds, which likely prevented significant warming.