Rode Gorman yesterday, tracked up Lang, East Quartz, Cirque and down onto Quartz Lake. It was an amazing day with nothing but blue bird and about 5-10cm's of fresh snow. Some areas were wind scowered with no snow, but some areas were wind loaded with near 30cm's. All the wind lips and cornices had a nice fresh curl on them and the landings weren't bottomless but soft enough to hit booters and drop cornices. Still possible to get stuck on the climbs, easily 30 to 40 cm deep track penetration when climbing. Had to leave Quartz lake and surrounding play areas basically untracked as we were 3 sleds running on fumes with no extra gas....sketchy, but with a loaned splash of gas from a fellow rider we all made it to the parking lot.
Saw a few natural loose snow avalanches from the new storm snow, none of those triggered anything bigger, my buddy dropped down one small (40 foot long) rolling slope right behind me and it slid back to that last horror frost layer - late feb or whatever. Burried his sled up to the kill switch and we had to shovel it out. Otherwise, common sense prevails out there, stay off the huge stuff and all the manageable slopes held up fine.
Anyone ever made it to the huge wide open area through the trees below Quartz Lake? Looked like a huge zone yet to be explored!?
nate
