January 16, 2019

POWWWWWWWW! Woke up in the bus to a bunch of fresh snow! Living off the grid just outside of Silverton. I made some breakfast, got packed up, made a sammy, and off we went! Marshell and I skied Mennehaha. We set a skin track up the road to the top. Just shy of the top we got hit up on the walkie by JP, who had just got to the bus! We finished off our hike to the top and made our transition to shred the North facing trees!! So much snow up high!!!!! The two of us skied down the ridge to the fourth shot. It is our go to storm day first line to check how we feel about the snow. PARTY MOB!!! Both of us sent it into this line ripping it so fast!! A lot of awesome hits and pillows throughout the blank canvas of POW!! FACESHOTS!!!! Faceshot after faceshot constantly wiping off the goggles!! Such a good run!! We then dropped into the first option after the halfway point and shred that down to the bus!! So awesome!! We stomped it out on our way up to jump into the shot!!! Marshell sent first with me following right behind!! W both sent the jump into it and he split right and I split left and we slayed the great white POW Cow!!! Met up with Jason down at the bus for lunch, then Marshell and I hiked back up to the third shot from the halfway point to get some footy! JP was all set up down at the bus with our DSLR to get a sick shot of us skiing the slot through the trees! We had also stomped out this entry to jump into the shot through two trees like a field goal!! It was sick!! I sent it first!! Jumping into the line, stomping it, and throwing up huge waves of snow as I skied down!! Incredible shot!!! Perfect skiing!!!!!! Another epic POW day in the San Juans!!! Been a hella good season so far!!! And another storm is on its way!!!! PRAY TO DAS SNOW GODS!

Snow Report

Mennehaha Basin area. 23cm of new snow at 10,500ft. 30cm or more at 12,000ft. Southwest winds. Dumping from 7PM the night before (1/15/19) to about 3PM or 4PM today (1/16/19). NE-N-NW slopes were very loaded. Large cornices as well. Large natural storm slab avalanches on NW and N faces. Also saw some small natural storm slides on E-NE faces in steep pillow like zones. The snow in the North trees skied great!! No signs of unstable snow in this zone, but this zone get skier compaction so much it is a whole different snow pack then the rest of the San Juans. I would not step into steep North facing trees like these during a storm. The storm tapered off in the evening with cloud coverage still. Temperature was about 25F during the day and 15F when the sun went down. Another storm is supposed to roll in tomorrow night with higher snow totals! Stacking up out here!

I just started putting snow reports at the bottom of the days post. I am no snow expert. We are just out here getting after it everyday and I would love to share my observations to the beautiful ski community!! Be safe! Take faceshots!!!!!