Anybody skied around Mazama lately? Telemetry looks promising, but would love to get a first hand report.
Sorry for the slow response. I've been guiding up at the yurt north of Harts Pass. We are finding good snow and very good stability on north and east aspects. Sun has hit the south and west aspects but the snow on the shady aspects continues to ski well. Surface snow temps at 2 PM on Saturday (warmest and sunniest day of the week) on north aspects were only -8.5 at 5,500' (thank you radiant cooling). Ski penetration was only in the 10 cm range but the ski quality was good.
Reports from other guides closer to Wa Pass are similar. Above 5,000' (and possibly lower but not confirmed) the shady aspects are skiing well. There are a few drainages that have seen some wind effect (Silverstar and Varden) but most others are skiing well.
Surface hoar growth was also observed. Largest was 9mm but the average was 5mm. As of Sunday afternoon it has survived on all shaded slopes that we observed from valley bottom to ridge crest in the Hart's Pass area (5,500 to 7,000').
