January 9 Chair Peak Basin

Skied up to the "rock" that sits out in the middle of Chair Peak at about 5,000'. Lots of folks out in the area as I followed three folks and their dog until they went right to Snow Lake ridge and I veered left up to the rock.

Great skin track up to the point, kudos to whoever put it in. I am guessing that it was put in on Saturday as it was pretty packed down and my dog was not sinking in at all. As I crested the face above the trees it became complete whiteout conditions. At that point the skin track was covered with the snow from Sat overnight and Sunday, about 6+ inches.

I stumbled up another 200 feet or so, but decided it was time to turn around as I just could not see anything. Plus, there was about 24 inches of new total and decided that continuing to climb up in to the bowl left of the East face was a little too risky since it was just me and the hound.

That being said, did not feel or sense any significant instability. In fact the snow was quite dry and light and on the way up there were only small sloughs come off of my skis.

Skied down and while I could not see at all for the first 500 feet or so, it was spectacular. Wonderful thigh deep powder and no worry of slides. Had a hard time navigating (no vis) so ended up in some steeper terrain with only surface sloughs. My dog was basically swimming down (and loving it).

The lower apron is when the visibility returned and the skiing was nice but clearly had seen a lot of tracks yesterday. A lot of folks in the basin (at least 30).