January 10
Started at the White Pine parking, ascending Red Pine to the ridge above the lake.
Descended and traversed to the base of the north chutes on Box Elder.
Ascended the north ridge to near the summit and descended the ene face to the flats. Ascended to Dear Creek pass descending and traversing to Dry Creek,
I found soft snow, about six inches over some form of crust on all aspects including south facing. By late afternoon rollers were noted on west facing, but climbing out Dry Fork was in soft snow with occasional wind effect.
There was a large slide on the east face of Box Elder running about 3’000 vertical feet during the prolonged storm cycle.
Ascended to the shoulder of the Pfeifferhorn and descended into Maybird via the main chute.
Moon over White Baldy
Weather:
It was partly cloudy with some west wind along the ridges. The winds were variable in speed throughout the day, stronger in the am and almost no wind down off the ridges especially to the south.
Moderate temperatures.
Alpenglow
Bottom Line:
Snow is mostly stable. There are patches of recent wind drifting, none apparently active.
Given a forecast of 1-2 feet, I’d suspect a repeat of the east face slide as it will overload the dry and somewhat faceted snow over the bed surface and potential exists on the northwest facing because of weak and shallow snow. Both Red Pine and Maybird have slick hard slab in the starting zones, although it is patchy.
