McGee Creek

Today we toured up McGee Creek to try and find some smooth snow surfaces for sliding.  We were rewarded with skinning on a thin snowpack with brush poking through to reach the main gully on Mt. Aggie to find slightly thicker snowpack covering the rocks in the gully.  On the way up the skinning was easy and we didn't need ski crampons.  When we reached about 3/4 height on the face it was time to turn around and we pushed some roller balls from our skis on the steepest section of terrain as well as the short Loose Wet Slide picutred.  The underlying snow was mostly supportable, but the top layer was thick like whipped cream from a posh restaurant or coffee house.  It skied alright, but you had to push it around lest it push you around.  Pleasant! when compared to the sastrugi and wind board that is elsewhere in the range.

Of course all this info will be useless when it cools down tomorrow evening into Monday, but if you can find a smooth panel of snow on a solar aspect tomorrow at just the right moment you might find enjoyable skiing.  Good luck!

You'll see the hasty profile I dug on an adjacent aspect at the high point of the tour.  Just tipping from SE to ENE dramatically changed the snowpack from MF to winter time snow.  This was around 10,900 Feet.  As we descended the first 5-600 feet the snow still had more winterlike properties, but was getting moist and starting to move under the skis.  Below around 10,300 was when the MF(read springlike snow) started and was more consistent underfoot.  This carried all the way down to the summer trail where we were able to glide most of the way back to the cars.