Snow Pack for January 31, 2007

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

By Brigid Mander

No New Snow Blues
With no new snow, the story of the snow pack continues to be much the same. A scary deep layer of faceted snow still lurks, and the surface hoar is again growing in giant, glittering facets at all elevations.

No real snow is in the forecast, dry conditions continue, and the overall avalanche warning for the Teton area remains  low for the near future.

Last week, temperature inversions had things really cooking up high, melting away the paltry amount of snow we have, so sun-exposed terrain has gotten thinner and more obstacle-riddled. But with the return of cold temperatures, so returns the surface hoar.

Perhaps this is a nice time to get in shape and go for long skins and hikes. Skiing the surface hoar is actually quite nice, and much better than skiing sun- exposed slopes that have melted considerably and then re-frozen into bomb proof crusts with a sprinkling of surface hoar on top.

It makes an odd, relatively noisy, tinkling sound as all the big crystals break and fall. At least the surface hoar is fairly soft, so we don’t have to be totally dejected about current conditions.

Remember, however, that low avalanche danger should not be taken as a green light for all activity, as instabilities persist and certain terrain can still slide.

PERMALINK:
Snow Pack for January 31, 2007 | Planet JH News Article: Snow Report Column

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