…or the worst of times, depending on which slopes you ski.

Our latest storm is a gift that keeps on giving.  Though it has been mostly sunny the last few days, temps have remained cold enough to keep conditions great, except on seriously sun affected slopes.

Until today sunny slopes in GTNP fared much better than the Teton Pass area thanks to more cloud cover over the last few days.  Today the whole range has gotten baked by the sun since dawn.

Yesterday morning I took the dog for a walk up Mt Glory.  All the South facing slopes sported a nasty, nasty breakable sun crust while the snow on N, NE, and NW aspects was great.

After a quick dip down Coal Creek I hoped to get out to the Claw — which looked really tasty — but had to get going due to plans to ski GTNP that afternoon.  Chiver’s ridge was tracked up but fun where it wasn’t too sun affected.

The snow on ESE aspects in GTNP was good top to bottom yesterday.  The snow was great on NNE aspects.

Winds looked to have been light as the last pulse of snow pushed through: the high peaks looked like a masterpiece of snow slathered on a rocky canvas.  Not much had sluffed or slid yet but that changed today.

Today we skied a NNE ridge off one of the common GTNP peaks and it was fabulous.  Unfortunately the pow was getting pretty heavy by mid-elevations and variable crusts materialized on E facing aspects with partial sun at lower-elevations.

With a temperature inversion and a lot of sun on the high peaks today things were definitely sluffing and sliding.  I heard a big one rumbling up Avalanche Canyon as we skied back to the car on the flats, but couldn’t see what went.

People have been getting after it a bit.  Wister got hit.  So did the Sliver.  Turkey Chute.  Ledges.  Chute the Moon looks like a ski resort.  Skin track up 25S is like a superhighway.  Skin tracks up both forks of Avalanche Canyon are in as are all the obvious standard ascent routes on the lower peaks.

Woody is calling for fog down low in the morning and sun with a high of 42* tomorrow afternoon.  Then we’re hopefully looking at more snow.

After bartending tonight I’ll be looking for a nice shady spot to slay tomorrow.  The goods are out there and winter is winding down fast.  Get some while it lasts. 🙂