Upside down snow on Powderhouse

Challenging ski conditions on Luther Pass. Most recent storm snow arrived warm and dense and resulted in some upside down conditions. Signs of this were obvious very quickly. Pole tests outside the skin track showed how upside the surface snow was and how soft the snow underneath this was. While breaking trail on nearly flat terrain on the approach, my crew heard several whumpfs. 

Photo 1: New storm slab cracking on slope undercut by skin track.

Photo 2: Flipping my ski pole upside down, the snow was quite resistant initially in the firm storm slab.

Photo 3: Once through the storm slab, the snow was very soft for the rest of the length of my ski pole. 

Photo 4: Tree rings or settlement cones, demonstrating snow settlement due to warming.

Photo 5: Hand hardness overview of new snow. One finger hard slab, over fist hard storm snow. This is sitting on top of fist hard near surface facets.