Snow Pit Graph Explained

Many of you will be familiar with this stuff already, but Aunt Tilley (Margo) wanted a more thorough explanation of the graph in my last post, so I wrote it out for her and figured I might as well put it up here, too.

Soggy Slogging at Yodelin

We took Jessica out for her third backcountry weekend in a row, aiming for the trifecta of difficult skiing conditions. We were lucky to find 15" of new snow that had been subject to 2 or 3 days of above freezing temperatures and several inches of rain. Had to be some of the soggiest, heaviest skiing I've ever done, but we had a good time, dug some pits and did some beacon practice before running home to the beer and dry clothes.

Breaking In New Folks, 12/12, Hyak

This was a Cascade Backcountry tour, and a beacon/travel education day for a couple of friends who are new to touring.

The very ambitious (and never really serious) plan was to head out the XC trails from Hyak and scoot out to Twin Lakes, then up to ski the east slopes of Silver. Coverage along the XC trails is pretty good, with only a few bare patches, but even at 3400 feet there's only 18" of snow on the ground, if that.

Since both Jessica and Leigh were working on new boots, we made it a travel day and skinned up to just shy of Windy Pass and did a nice big beacon search clinic. Great fun, and everyone did a great job. It's a treat to go out and have a blast with enthusiastic people when, if it were just me, I'd probably stay home and eat pancakes, waiting for better snow.

Occasional sun and great visibility was a bonus. Surface hoar forming everywhere, with particularly impressive formations in the creeks and riverbeds. Had we dug a pit, I'll bet we would have found some near the ground, but we were occupied with beacon work.