Coast Range Outdoors

Tyler, Peggy and I went up to Metal Dome to see if we could sneak in some early-November turns. It has been a great start to the season!

When we arrived at the juction for Metal Dome on the Brandywine FSR, there were about a dozen other vehicles parked. It was great to see so many people getting out and enjoying the early season skiing. By the end of the day, we saw somewhere between 75-100 other people getting after it. Metal Dome has become a classic early season touring destination.

At the trailhead, there was roughly 20cms of snow, and skinning up was still a bit of a sporty endeavor. Snowpack depth progressively improved with elevation. When we exited the woods at the PMSC rescue cache at 1600m, I probed an HS of 95cm. Nice!

As we continued up, the visibility deteriorated, and the winds picked up. Although many slopes were still below threshold for avalanches, we started to see signs of instability. The storm that had come through the previous day started cold, warmed up, and then cooled off again. We could feel a temperature crust down about 20cm’s within the storm snow as we got up into treeline terrain. And with moderate to strong winds, we could feel the storm slab setting up. It felt stubborn, but combined with low-tide conditions and zero visibility, we decided to transition at 1850 meters and do some Braille skiing through the meadows.

Overall the skiing was pretty good! This felt like the first proper day of skiing this season. We made it back down to about 1400m before boot packing the final stretch back to the truck. A fun day out with a great crew.