Ski Report – February 25, 2016 – Obsession

Sun busted out today north of the Pass and I skinned Obsession after crossing the road across from the entry to Worthington Glacier.  Spotted a horde of skinners heading to the promised land of untracked on Girls Mt.

Snowpack increased by another 12″ with yesterday’s storm. Ambient air temperature gradient has been incredibly level for most the winter at 25-30F according to the GAP DOT site. This has produced perfect conditions for our snow to fall to the surface as stellar dendrites.  This factor along with the lack of any significant wind event has produced a world-class snow depth/stability in excess of 300cm at 3000′ slowly settling and producing great skiing.

Today’s 4pm forecast discussion by the NWS pretty well sums up the long term by stating “ABOVE AVERAGE TEMPERATURES AND VERY NON-WINTER LIKE WEATHER WILL CONTINUE AS A BARRAGE OF PACIFIC STORMS HAMMER SOUTHCENTRAL.” 

But as is the case when things turn coastal, my model continue to see better weather, blue skies with possible flurries to the north of the Pass as down-sloping continues keeping most moisture over Valdez through the weekend.