Bright Sunny Skogan - stick to the shadows
Trip date: Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
Submitted by tmalaher
Particpants:
Both of us
Discussion:
Arrived at Nakiska parking lot at 10:30 to -9 temp.
Crossed sneaked onto Hidden from the SW corner of the parking lot and crossed in front of the day lodge. They had opened a hole in the fence so we could cross over to the intersection without having to descend to the Bronze Chair.
Snow was cold and dry, beginning to soften in areas where there was direct sun. After 2 hours we got all the way up to where the Skogan trail opens into the powerline, at which point the snow got warm and we decided to turn around. Crossed over to Sunburst on dry cold snow (all in shadow). Descending Sunburst, anywhere that was (or had been) in sunlight was soft (or slightly crunchy from re-freezing because the air temperature was still below zero).
But the descent was fabulous with the 3-4 cm of fresh snow on top of the grooming. Easy to control the descent speed (but still work for the snowplow-muscles.)
Anywhere that was in direct sun was getting soft. So tomorrow might be OK, if you're early enough, but not for long.