Snow Fog at Summit Prairie 12/25/16

this is what greeted me returning to rig:

Summit Rock: 16-1660 revisted 12/25/16

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Location: Co. 62 to FR 16 Summit Prairie.  FR 16 south, at summit 600 east...630...1660 uphill to Summit Rock; backtrack down 1660 to 16 & start

Road & Trail Conditions: AM; Hwy 26 patchy sno  & ice PM mostly clear; Co. 62 plowed packed sno & ice, more ice at lower elevation

Snow Conditions: almost 3' base, 3-12" new over previous grooming

Skis on & temperature: 10am 18° (JD 25° )

Skis off & temperature: 4:30pm 0° (PC 10° ; JD 17° )

Distance: 14 miles;  elevation 1600+

elevation chart:

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Rating (1-10; 10 awesome): 10 (of course)

Comments: lovely start of day: blue skies & sunny with an east wind blowing lazy sno flurries.  ahhhh.....

limited ski options today. 6-12" new sno since last grooming made many trails too deep.  surprisingly, not many snomo tracks since then either.  followed some from fri or sat. with new sno on top.  saw no one today.

started out on the same course as 12/22, south on 16 as it was into the sun & there was one clean, flat snomo track with 1-2" powder on top. the only other option looked to be the 16 west into logan valley. had several snomo tracks with lots of crossing chop. also in the shade.

temp. wasn't too cold, occasional brisk east wind dropped windchill fast +/- 0.  wore most of my layers & first day for balaclava:

found it very useful, especially at end of day, sun down, shadows, wind & downhill.  broke out heated mitts for second time as fingertips were getting pretty cold.

more sno than thurs., breaking trail slows things down; no herringbone needed on top of 630:

 1660 downhill on thurs. was 15mph; today 7.  i like slower.

this is a day where you follow whoever was kind enough to lay some tracks down.  the first set on  600-630 ended 1 mile short of the 1660.  broke trail for that mile & found more tracks both up & down 1660. at summit rock, no tracks down 1665 to huddleston, so backtracked.

went up for the view & some pics:

Graham Mtn.

summit prairie FR 16 west into logan valley

l-r strawberry to graham mtns.

Strawberry mtn. - se face

above treeline wind can easily cover over groom or tracks: