Dec 16, 2008, - Silver Basin

Lots of good powder still, in the sheltered areas. But the East winds scoured the exposed ridge tops and E faces down to the old pre-storm crust in places. The best skiing was definitely a little lower, in the protected areas.

No stability issues. A pretty hard wind slab was evident in places, but it wasn't pervasive - a lot of the usual traps had a mix of scoured areas and cross-loaded sastrugi. Basically there are lots of pockets of hard wind affected snow, mixed with the old bare crust up high. Down low was cold, settling powder that was still pretty unaffected by the wind.

More later and maybe some pics but I wanted to get this up. The new snow we're expecting will help coverage, especially in the scoured areas and rocky gullies. If it stays put.

Its good to be out skiing in winter snow again!!