November 24, 2010, Blizzard of (Cryst)aahhhs!

You are not helping.  Jerk. ;)

Rex lift was running so ski patrol could get around and mark unpleasant areas. Groomers were doing their duty as well, and gave us easy skinning.  It was snowing lightly, trying unsuccessfully to clear.  Breeze seemed to be coming from the NW, so we stayed in Memorial Forest all day to avoid it and have better visibility.

The snow was nearly knee deep and Utah quality. Friends reported some wind affect on the King and other ridge crests. Skinning with a 27yo made me feel like a 62yo sometimes today.

Some video:  http://vimeo.com/17220916  and a photo:

Way to keep getting after it, Silas....

author=silaswild link=topic=18111.msg76596#msg76596 date=1290644991]
The snow was nearly knee deep and Utah quality.

Yesterday in places it was too.
If Utah has the world's greatest snow, I hope for the sake of that claim Utah's snow is a little lighter. There were three times when the density of the snow brought me to a complete stop pointing straight downhill on relatively decent pitches. Thigh deep, trying to extricate my skis from the supposed Utah like powder. Could be because I ski on those narrow ass skis compared to Scotsman's standards.
Anything untouched starting 600 ft above midway and down was very dense IMHO. But it could just be the way I ski too.
The upper and middle hill were just magic.

author=Joedabaker link=topic=18111.msg76611#msg76611 date=1290658335]
Yesterday in places it was too.
Could be because I ski on those narrow ass skis compared to Scotsman's standards.

It all felt like Utah pow on my 125mm boards! ;)
I think Utah pow an exaggeration for any of it, frankly.
It was The finest PNW pow though and had that nice density to push against.
It will be terrible tomorrow though and I think everybody should leave it alone and let it dry out.

author=Joedabaker link=topic=18111.msg76611#msg76611 date=1290658335]
The upper and middle hill were just magic.

Yup.  That's where we stayed all day.

author=Scotsman link=topic=18111.msg76612#msg76612 date=1290658622]
I think Utah pow an exaggeration for any of it, frankly.

Yesterday sounds like it was different, deeper; today was only knee deep fluff on a thicker base.  We heard that the snow today was 5% moist, as compared to Utah normal of 8%; hope tomorrow's even better.   I dunno, in the interest of more scientific TRs, can someone explain these facts, avoiding emotions of joy and magic?  :)
Amar?   Bryan?  Garth?

author=silaswild link=topic=18111.msg76613#msg76613 date=1290659908]
We heard that the snow today was 5% moist, as compared to Utah normal of 8%.

Wow, 5% sounds really light. It has been a LONG time since I have skied Utah so I won't make that comparison. The snow we hit on Tuesday was offically "Hero Snow". Skiing that stuff was about as much work as sitting in a hot tub drinking a beer. Seriously my boards (don't laugh Scottsman) are 88mm and I just pointed them downhill and let them do what they wanted to  :D

author=silaswild link=topic=18111.msg76613#msg76613 date=1290659908] We heard that the snow today was 5% moist, as compared to Utah normal of 8%;  :)
Amar?   Bryan?  Garth?

I don't believe it.... I want scientific proof, charts and graphs and an in depth analysis.
Felt like very good PNW pow but not Utah pow.... I still think you are exaggerating.

Me thinks the wind did it.

Flakes get beat up in the wind, bumping into each other, trees, blowing up and over ridges, etc.

Broken snowflakes are much more dense than whole flakes when they come to rest and pile up.

So maybe the water content refers to the frozen solid, not the pile of broken frozen pieces you so blissfully ski through, even though it's C-C-C-COLD!?

I had better look into this myself....

author=Snow Bell link=topic=18111.msg76622#msg76622 date=1290666587]
I had better look into this myself....

No need to. I will give you an hourly update from my iphone like Silas. You can ski vicariously through my powder tweets..........except I don't have an iphone.

5% snow is not uncommon here.  If you want, compare recent precip totals to accumulated snowfall totals at any of the usual telemetry sites recently--Baker, Paradise, Washington Pass etc.  Often you'll find snow falling at 5% or less moisture content.

Of course, it then rapidly consolidates even during cold temps, particularly when blown around by the wind or piled deeply.  It's not the norm to find deep, unconsolidated snow at 5% moisture content here, but it does happen. 

The Utah phenomenon of deep, undisturbed snow through which you can move almost without resistance might have to do with some other snow characteristic in addition to moisture content.  Anyone?  I can't say I've ever actually experienced this, since whenever I go through Utah they tell me I should've been there a week ago but that everything's all tracked out and sun crusted now.  And judging by the way they powder-farm (and how aggressive they get if you don't want to bother), their fabled snow doesn't actually happen so often.  We ski deep powder quite often here, sometimes for weeks on end; I don't think this is really the norm in the Wasatch or Rockies, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

Mark

Silas - Checking the 24 hour water/24 hour snow for Crystal base via the 10 day data on the NWAC web site I see:

ending 4 am 22 Nov    .27"/7" = .039 = 3.8%

ending 4 am 23 Nov    .61"/7" = .087 = 8.7%

ending 4 am 24 Nov    no new snow

But what fell as 7" at the wind sheltered base may measure less up on the mountainside if abused by wind (as Kneel Turner pointed out), or after some consolidation.

Different weather factors (pressure, temperature, moisture) are known to affect (independently?) the type of snow crystal that forms. So Utah crystal types might typically be different than Cascade crystal types which might mean a typically different feel for ski conditions in new snow. I vote Silas goes to Utah for research purposes.

Thanks Garth.  But forget about Silas, willya?  Give me an expense account and I'm gone.

Great thread on snow quality. I skied Ski Acres on Tuesday with my son in the morning and it was as light and dry as I think we ever get in the PNW. Yet I could still control my speed through snow resistance. I concur that our snow tends to consolidate quickly even with persistent cool temps, as we experienced for a few days this week.

I caught one of those Utah days that everyone talks about two years ago on a business trip. Sunny day with 2 feet of new that had fallen 2 days earlier. Headed up to Brighton with my touring gear but did not have skins with me. Passed through a gate a booted up to a ridge that I was going to ski until I was caught from behind by a local, who just so happened to have an extra pair of skins with him (only in the Wasatch).

He says lets go ski Wolverine together, the peak the sits in between Brighton and Alta. I of course say yes. The run down was easily one of the best of my life. And yes, the snow was easy to move through. Amazing.