Another quality day in the backcountry has hopes high for a good season. Clint Butler, Simon Evans, and I skied Turnagain Pass on Sunday, December 4. In the last week 12"-14" of new snow fell in the Girdwood and Turnagain area. Recently temperatures have ranged from –10 F to 10F. There’s a healthy supply of nice light snow but the low temps have also created a substantial surface hoar in the area.

Our long-term outlook regarding this snowpack is a little sketchy. Snowpack layers consist of depth hoar, wet snow, surface hoar, rain crust, and now a couple feet of cold, light snow. Add some wind and things could get interesting. Yesterday we got lucky with weather and line selection. It bluebird with no wind and we skied a fairly stable aspect. Conditions are thin, I hit a couple rocks but it's still early in the season. Overall, a quality day free of incident.
- Jason Scheben