1/20/20 Blewett Area

For the last week the snowpack has been building, but at a fraction of what's happened at the Cascade Crest. For the last few days conditions have been excellent with deep, new, dry snow that was staying fresh....until today...The weekends light powder was still turntable, but above certain elevations, a freezing fog, made for exciting, classic conditions of their type! Speed was your friend - but only so far. Today I was able to quickly follow my skin track to about 3,600', then pushed ahead for close to another 1,000' of trail breaking. I finally got discouraged and settled for a foggy high point - 500' below an un-named summit that should probably be named Kings Peak. The snowpack was heavy and solid. I always keep myself low angle, but today I tried to cut some very steep road cuts with no action whatsoever. There is a sliding layer near the ground, but my weight could not trigger anything even at 55 degrees!

If the forecast holds and we get a few inches of new snow, tomorrow should ride very nicely. It wasn't a bright and sunny day for pictures, but these do tell the tale of the day. And yes, the craggy nature of this ridge top, looks like it will hold some spectacular riding when we get there!




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