Strabs view area 3/23 11m frenzy /skis

[Mark Johnson]

Arrived around 3:30 and wind was good. Rode for almost 2 hours nicely powered. Strong winds up top. Snow is weird in most places with patches of crust that if you slow down will rip both skis right off your boots. Some patches of ok powder. Had a blast riding off edges where the hill meets the lake. Had a few big for me glidey jumps. Well worth the 2 hours I will be short on my paycheck. A few other riders but not as many as I expected with such good wind.

[whit]

I rode the View Area from 4 to 5:30. Decent wind, 13 to 18mph but the good snow was hard to find. Best snow was on the ice or right next to the ice on the land. The hills had some deep breakable crust and many sage brush holes. BW Dave and his wife were rigging at 5:30 when I left. She just got off work and drove out......quite dedicated, great to see and very admirable knowing they had to get a baby sitter as well. Then they are off to Maui for a week.....you guys have fun and charge it in the big Pacific, wind looks like classic March wind there, 18 to 25 knot trades for the next 10 days.

Then I drove to co-op creek, hoping to find some good snow, rigged my 14M Caution, because it was backing off and went out. There were only a few patches of good powder and ok riding on the groomed snowmobile trail. Otherwise it was deep breakable crust, punching all the way through a 3 inch crust and down a foot or more. Some of the boys said they had good conditions down at Mud Creek? At least the wind was good and steady all day. WG

[Jason Klein]

snow on the hills was as tough as i've ever kited/skied in. really wierd crust, thick but easy to break thru without much under it. ejected and spent 10 mins looking for a ski at one point. Snow on the lake wasn't bad. good wind. flew the 10m for only the second time this winter.

[Todd Jacques]

I am one tired puppy. Glad to see others agree snow was a handfull. When I got there at 10:30it was blowing 25+ . I found some great stashes on the leeward sides of strabs fields. Rode two stashes the whole time. 3:30hours and 28 miles on the gps. The snow would cave in and your skis would go to the bottom, no fun on telemarks. I did everything I could to stay away from those spots. Glad the night shift got some rides, good job jason picking the 10m and not listening to me to go big.

[bordy]

went over to mud creek flew 10m powered over to chicken creek, and all over the hils and lake, super fun, diffacult snow for sure, I was skiing and had fun trying to stay on top, 46 mph, on the gps, I have no idea how to look at my distance yet?

[bigwavedave]

I got there at 12:30 and rode till 3:30, ate some lunch, took a nap, and then Rachel showed up and joined me for the 5:30 til 8:00 session. Great wind, great visibilty, unpredictable snow. Wind drift sections were nice but many areas you didn't know if you were going to sink in 3 inches or 3 feet. You'd be digging in to power up for a jump and then suddenly you'd sink in and your shoulder with hit the snow. It was as if much of the snow under the surface was melting faster than what was on top due to the wind chill freezing up the top layer. There were areas where it seemed as though the snow was just warm enough that the crust on top had barely enough surface tension to keep it in place as you'd ride into an area and you could see and hear large thin slabs of surface snow all around you slumping down as you broke that surface tension. It was very strange and a little disconcerting the first time it happened. There were certain areas that were better than others but overall I'm thinking with the warmer weather that we're going to have to start heading to the snowmobile packed areas or higher elevations like skyline as the sage is making a comeback and the bottoms starting to fall out at the overlook and less traffic'd spots.

[whit]

Definitely some of the weirdest snow I have ridden in a long time. I was thinking about the definition of this snow type, because I have seen it before, although rarely. After some more research, I remembered that it is caused by radiation recrystallization. Here is the definition from The Avalanche Handbook, 2006.......
"GROWTH OF CRYSTALS AROUND CRUSTS IN DRY SNOW: The influence of a crust can significantly alter the condition for transport and deposition of water vapor in a dry snow pack. Faceted crystals sometimes form above crusts to produce a future avalanche situation. Radiation recrystallization provides an example. However the presence of crusts, since they are impermeable to vapor transport, can also allow faceted snow to grow immediately BELOW a hard layer even when surrounding crystals are well rounded. Below a crust, extra water vapor present due to blockage causes supersaturation, allowing facets to form."

And did we ever have some HUGE FACETS and hollow, hollow snow down below (hollow and facets are synonymous). This is a technical explanation of the snow we were experiencing. WG