The Early Bird Gets the Worm on Static Peak

With the warmish temperatures we’ve been having lately (both day and night) and shallow freezes in the snowpack, it’s no wonder there seems to be little skier traffic in the hills recently. Low and behold though, our now historic snow-pack is starting to consolidate and there is some good skiing to be had…you just have to get up early to enjoy it. Higher elevations (above 11k’) still seem to be providing punchy bootpacking for the time being (and probably still shedding some snow), but the skinning/skiing is supportable and generally good if you time it right.

Randokitty skis the lower flanks of Static Peak.
Click all photos for larger image.

From what I’ve experienced in the past few days, if you want good conditions you want to be skiing by 8am for most easterly aspects. You can get away with skiing more southerly aspects a bit later, but be aware that depending on the terrain and aspect at lower elevations, you may be dealing with some serious wet slides. We kicked off two today in Static Draw that showed signs of building into bigger avalanche events if the terrain allowed. Here are some more pictures from today…have a great weekend!

Good, firm, supportable snow at 6:40am at the top of Static Draw.

Randokitty skins in front of Prospectors Mountain.
There is a line in this photo that I have been eying for the past few years, but it appears to be runnelled now. With the wildlife closure in effect for most of the winter on Prospectors, it’s often hard to get the timing right for some of the gnarlier descents on the peak. Oh well…maybe next year.

Our first few turns off the top were still a bit scratchy at 9am due to it’s southeast exposure.

Skier, snow, rock.

Randokitty speck at the bottom for perspective, and the west ridge of Albright Peak.

Booting up this section would have sucked with the
shallow freeze, but skinning and skiing were primo.

Low angle whippet skiing…sick!

Yay!

Is it okay to want a cold beer…even if it’s only 10am? 🙂