Ski AK: The Official 2013/20014 Thread

[Mike_Records]

A few pictures from earlier/gloomier in the year from the Front Range and the Jewel:








Skied down on the Kenai both days this weekend, it was shallow, but good.

[ak_powder_monkey]

Turkey red has the best pizza in the valley. Don't let the hippies scare you off.

yup......

[AKturnanburn]

Pizza Athena sucks, overpriced and underdone.

[Mike_Records]

Skied Manitoba both days this weekend. Like a said before, it was shallow, but darn good skiing.




Got scared away from Hatcher by concerns about depth hoar and reports of raincrust. Ended up hearing reports of everything from horrible to pretty awesome. Anyone been up there since the rain event who'd like to share the conditions they found?

[Chugachjed]

I stayed home. The crust on all aspects reports scared me off.

[cgski]

Your reports were spot on M.R.
HP last weekend: above 3000'ish was very nice powder skiing with a fun wafer-thin crackly rime crust providing sound effects; below 3000'ish powder skiing under an increasingly thick and challenging non-supportive crust. I sampled east, north, and west aspects, and from 4600' to 2400', all in freshies. It looked like riding in pre-rime/rain tracks might have been awkward. There is some depth hoar under the armor plate crust left by the October monsoon-over-snow, but it didn't seem to be an issue.

[Bluebird]

Looks like first good storm of the season is coming to southeast late this week.

On another note...SPAM....Vote for Eaglecrest in the Powder Mag contest; http://bit.ly/1aMX3nX

[Mike_Records]

Your reports were spot on M.R.
HP last weekend: above 3000'ish was very nice powder skiing with a fun wafer-thin crackly rime crust providing sound effects; below 3000'ish powder skiing under an increasingly thick and challenging non-supportive crust. I sampled east, north, and west aspects, and from 4600' to 2400', all in freshies. It looked like riding in pre-rime/rain tracks might have been awkward. There is some depth hoar under the armor plate crust left by the October monsoon-over-snow, but it didn't seem to be an issue.

Interesting, thanks for the report. Pleasantly surprised to hear that the depth hoar at the bottom doesn't seem to be too reactive. I wonder if that crust on top of the depth hoar is what is providing such good bridging? The depth hoar worries me cause its that low probability high consequence kinda layer that seems to infrequently but catastrophically fail rather randomly. I wonder how it will respond to the precipitation coming this weekend.

[carpathian]

Finally done with Dopplemayr! Get to cut back to 5-12's. feels like all the time in the world. Good lord... The man made is getting deep. Can't wait for the stiff ultra cold corduroy. Pow coming weds day maybe?

[ak_powder_monkey]

heard reports of horrible to the worst skiing ever for hatcher... come on storm!

[ak_powder_monkey]

Who's ready for some winter?

[HansJob]

I'm sure most of you check conditions before heading out. Here is today's forecast. Be safe out there. http://www.cnfaic.org/advisories/current.php?id=341

[Alaskan Rover]

heard reports of horrible to the worst skiing ever for hatcher... come on storm!

Give it time....season is still young!! Hatcher is always worth the trip no matter what the conditions. Always good to have an excuse to go to the Hatcher Pass lodge and get their cheese fondue and their great homemade soup and homemade bread!!! YUMMMM!!!

Does this sound like an advertisement for the lodge?? It is!!! They pay me in soup and ale!!!!

[Mike_Records]

Skied Hatcher today w/ Chugachjed and the crew. 15 cm new down low, 30 cm up high. Many small slides up high in the storm snow, especially on cross loaded north aspects and eastern aspects in general. Quite a bit of wind transport evident during the storm and even over the course of a couple hours today.

[ak_powder_monkey]

anybody ski the penn today? I went fishing instead

[ak_powder_monkey]

skied tenderfoot ridge today, was a bit crusty crappy coverage in the alpine.

[Mike_Records]

Headed up to Hatcher with the rest of Alaska, and possibly the rest of the world today, familiar faces and internet personalities everywhere. Tracks on everything, awesome to see people getting after it. In the unlikely event that anyone who uses this thread wasn't actually at Hatcher today, a note on conditions: Watched the winds all day as they thrashed the Matanuska Valley and sublimated any remaining snow out of the Chugach, but stayed quite calm at Hatcher. Winds started to pick up a bit as we left the parking lot at 4. Lots of point releases in the new snow from mid week. Small slabs still breaking loose on the facet layer at the bottom of the raincrust, nice to see them not propagating far. Largest triggered activity I observed today was on thin spots where slabs were breaking on basal facets, guessing some of these spots have already slid this year, keeping them thin and weak. Even on steep terrain these slides were moving notably slow, but entraining a fair amount of snow.

[Chugachjed]

Wish I had made it out. I'm getting after it tomorrow I think.

[ak_powder_monkey]

Nice skier compaction on marmot, and by that I mean, I've seen Alpenglow less tracked out at the end of a day.

Skiing sure is fun.

[Mike_Records]

Another day of familiar faces, blue skies, and good snow at Hatcher. Less people than yesterday, and still plenty of untracked lines left over at the end of the day. Definitely some wind transport, a little zipper crust most places, but didn't observe much thick slab formation. Significant surface faceting in protected areas. Rachel showing the boys how its done:

[Slaag Master]

sweet!!!!!!!!

[Mike_Records]

Is anywhere in south central going to escape the rain?

[HansJob]

great for skating in the street

[Chugachjed]

I put on crampons to walk down to the mailbox.

[ak_powder_monkey]

in case you were wondering the new chair 6 is open (and will be hilarious the first big pow day of the year, when you ride it you will know why), it services mighty might only right now... Which might have more gravel on it than the parking lot.

What I'm saying is GODDAMNITWENEEDSNOW

I hear Hatcher went isothermal! Better than facet death like last year I guess.