Tour of Winnemucca Lake zone

With suboptimal conditions, we decided on a day more focused on touring than on turning. We circumnavigated the area and looked at surface conditions in anticipation of snowfall on Sunday. Although there was surface hoar in areas protected by winds, all of the start zones we looked at today were exposed to winds and devoid of surface hoar. Instead, we found some small facets on the surface and just below the surface under thin wind packed snow. Many of the facets on the surface had been blown by previous winds and were pooling in depressions, resulting in irregular distribution patterns. Facets under the wind packed snow were more consistent. Any time my regular body weight broke through the wind packed snow, I checked underneath and found small angular facets. In a few places the wind packed snow was so strong that it was hard to dig through with my shovel - here facets were less prominent.

Also of note if we do get snow on Sunday, was the contrast between start zones with rough sastrugi and start zones that were smooth. For example, the skier's left side of the main Elephant's Back bowl was rough and would not make a good bed surface, whereas the skier's right side was very smooth, firm, and would make an excellent bed surface. I saw similar contrasts between rough and smooth below Frog Lake Ridge, on Round Top and The Sisters, and on the steep slopes above Woods Lake.