January 21, 2011

Turning and Touring in the Talkeetnas

Geno rallied the two-man team.  Thanks to the report at HatchYourTrax, we decided to try the Talkeetnas.  We skinned up toward Government Peak in flat light before sun up, encouraged by the 4 fresh inches on the lower mountain.  We found a rain crust above the brush line with variable strength.
Visibility improved late in the morning and we enjoyed the funky snow much more on lap 2 in good light.  The snow looks better in the photos than it felt.  We found the best snow on the front face with thicker and stronger rain crust back on 4068.
Front Face
The tour over to 4068 from Govt Peak front side was a beautiful trip, but 4068's snow was trickier with a thicker crust. 
From 4068, Backside of the Front Side
The crust was absent below the brush line, and there was no evidence of wind on the new snow up high (wind had worked the underlying base.)  The top layer was like rain crust with the cold snow below the crust. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rain crust on the surface? or buried rain crusts from earlier in the season?

Alaska Jack said...

Rain crust was top layer, surface.