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New Year’s finally provided some much needed snow in Turnagain Pass, AK. Although the winds were fierce and any snow above treeline was becoming wind scoured, the trees were finally filling in.
The snow was dense, soft and fast. Despite receiving over 24 inches in the upper elevations, it was skiing about three inches. The wind had completely buffed the snow over and made for some all time tree skiing.
It felt great to finally play around in the trees again! There’s no shortage of fun features from pillows, to multiple staged drops to air off of and keep you on your toes!
Currently, it’s been cold for about a week without precipitation. Much of the mid elevation surface snow has become faceted and is skiing quite nicely. With new snow in the forecast this surface snow may become a problem layer but the storm is looking to come in warm with high chances of rain again.
The high alpine remains wind scoured and is fairly sketchy as we are dealing with a persistent weak layer under a dense wind slab. The chances of triggering this wind slab is low but if it is triggered the consequences could be catastrophic. The better skiing is in the mid elevations for the time being.
