October 24 Condition Report

I promised myself that I wouldn't ski this season until November. I resisted September with ease and the meager start to October proved to no more difficult than September. A big motivation for me is having all brand new ski gear and have skied plenty of grass and rock early season I know what those conditions can do to a pair of shred sticks. Well, November isn't here but with some warmer temps and snow depths of 70+ cm at 2000m being the rumor I thought that it sounded safe enough for a stretch of the legs.  Below is a visual report of the conditions as of yesterday October 24 on Mccrea. Now things have no doubt changed as it has been very warm since 13:00 ( +4 C ) yesterday. 


Start from the car.

First, let's talk about the snowpack. We skinned right from the car at 1700m and found very supportive snow and never felt the bottom from there. We dug a quick little pit just have a look at the snowpack structure. We found a few rain/temp crusts lower down and followed by the last storm's snow. Height of snow 80cms at 2100m
 HS 80 cms

Second, let's talk about ski quality. The skiing was excellent for October. A very supportive snow pack made for almost carefree skiing. There was obvious evidence of wind scour and loading in the lee's during the last storm or shortly after. We opted to leave to steep lee terrain alone and played on some great NW facing slopes. 


In conclusion, things are looking really great for late October and this big warm-up might make all the soft skiing disappear for now it will certainly help improve our base for the upcoming season. If you are skiing in the early season don't forget your bear spray!