I have some work that must be done on MLK day, so cut time by going skiing this morning.  Brown Mountain lookout trail in GNP.  TH at 3.4k, lookout at 7.5, rain/snow line at 5.9.  As one of my Juneau-raised co-workers said, vintage SE Alaska weather = fucking nasty.  I thought I had enough time to make the lookout if conditions allowed, but trail breaking above 5k was absurdly taxing, 16 inches of new snow, and a good 8 pounds of water piled on top of each ski with each new shuffle forward.  I flipped it at 6.5k when I ran out of time (to make an appointment that cancelled), and experienced some interesting skiing down.

It’d be great safe tree skiing with better snow.  As it was, without something as fat and rockered as the Marquettes it would have been unskiable (for me).  Decent speeds to achieve planning above to cement was essential, and stops to scope the line ahead were made at tip-grabbing peril.

The rest of the weekend promises more of the same, with the snowline staying far too high for usefulness all through the weekend.  Avy conditions, and skiing generally, will be horrendous for quite some time.  The rain crust from the last big warm storm, which we saw last weekend but didn’t see fail, has been failing with the past weeks loading.  Not only will that crust be exacerbated by this muck, the rain promises to produce an even thicker crust that will be the source of paranoia well into May.

In short, it looks like a good weekend to go bowling.