Near Camas Peak -- Less than Perfect Snow Conditions; still make for a great time!

   

       The weather experts were reporting blistering conditions of 34+ degrees for the area following up on our week of single digit numbers.  Avalanche danger in the area was also rated low. Mike and I were very excited for a number of reasons. First, the cold was gone, thus allowing for increased overall comfort. Secondly, the warmer temps should keep "Boss Hog" from taking the 30-45mins to start like it took in 0 degree weather. And sure enough, nine pulls later, the snowmobile fired right up!

Camas Creek Trailhead - Lost Horse Lookout

The warmer weather had served us with some unfortunate snow conditions. Hard crunchy snow below ~7,000ft with 2-4 inches of more suitable fluff above that. Although, on the way back down, the hard crunchy had softened just enough to make skiing pretty rough.   

"Boss Hog"

Side hill areas proved to be a difficult task, due to 2-4" of soft snow on top of firm crust. This situation lead us to drop our initial intention of scaling Camas Peak. 

A continuous mix of blue sky, and cloudy weather kept us guessing..

 

Upon reaching the 'saddle'  it became clear  that the snow conditions would make  a summit of Camas a  tall order that would best be done when conditions improved.

We had a chance to dig several avalanche pits; for those of you savvy in the field, we have the following to report:

Compression Test:  CT18 (Q2) @ 2"

                              CT25 (Q3) @ 8"

Extended Column: ECTN16 (Q2) @ 2"

                             ECTN28 (Q3) @ 8"

Rutschblock:  RB4 (Q2) @ 2"

    RB7 

Aside from the consistent failure at the 2-3" mark (where all that fluff is sitting on crust) we had very stable conditions! Just hope that fluff is able to bond to the crust before we get too much more snow.

Apparently even out here, kids like myself are glued to their phones... 

Since Camas Peak was deemed a destination for the future, we had to summit something.  The point just east of Camas dictated a post-holing climb to the top.

At the tippy top of said climb, Camas greeted us briefly with a full frontal before we set off back down the hill.  :)

Thanks for looking!

-Miles Granger

-Two Weekends Off-

Good day! Thank you for checking in for an update! Unfortunately this last weekend we had some issues that prevented us from going out. Also, we are unable to go out this weekend.  I have however just made purchase of a cheap little snowmobile to assist us in getting up the increasingly snowed in forest service roads.

Next update should be Jan. 13th!