February 8, 2015, Paradise

After staring at forecasts and models all week, a gaggle of WAC skiers risked both the gate and the rain to poke around Paradise. The sometimes-modeled weather window opened wider than we had hoped, with blue skies and sun in the morning, dry all day, and rain the moment we touched the cars at 3 pm. It hadn't occurred to any of us to look at the cloud models, so focused we were on avoiding liquid precipitation.

Snowpack was 1-3" of schmooey new atop a soft and friendly wet crust, icy above Pan Point. Skied well all day, getting heavier with sun and warming. Pinwheels and point releases were prominent on solar aspects. Saw one ~6-12" windslab crown beneath an east-facing cornice near Golden Gate.  We kept our slope angles low; nothing moved for us.  Friends digging pits reported clean repeatable shovel shears below Pan Face on a wet layer 12" down that was unreactive to compression tests.

Thanks, weather gods and touring partners, especially Brian, Erik, Josh, and Sahar, for a fun day!