Boy, that was some hard going...

Long day in the winter wonderland of the Middle Fork.  Just a few obs fom the Dickey Creek drainage.

• Toured between 4k and 7k.
• Near 0* temps (cold enough that all of the beers in the vehicle froze solid, beer slushy) seemed like there was a short warming trend around the noon time, but then cooled back off.
• Strong canyon winds, mid elevations in the trees were moderate, strong south westerly ridgetop winds enabling lots of snow transport.  Valley bottom winds were calm in the Dickey Creek drainage.
• The snowpack is still some what unconsolidated, lacking any supportable density layer changes above the rain crust that is buried 100 cm + down.  This made for some really tough track setting.
• There was also a developing soft slab at all elevations, from wind, warmer temps and higher humidity.  10 to 20 cms thick.  Made for tough trail breaking and some super challenging down.
• Above 6200' (est) when the warm front passed it created a thin ice crust (2 mm), this was on all aspects and variable.
• The down was tough.  Even on a pair of rockered skis with a 125 mm waist, waterski techniques had to be practiced.  Ski quality was poor from 7k down to 4k.
• We did not see and avalanches. 
• Red Flags included, strong winds, developing softslabs over lower density snow, 14' of snow since the last trip. Some minor cracking in the top 20 when breaking trail.
• Happy New Years.