We were hoping to take advantage of clear skies today and headed for the southeast gully on Mt Tom. Some poor route choice slowed our progress up the moraines below the gully as we bushwhacked and did our fair share of dry land skinning. Mid-level clouds kept the peaks socked in for most of the day above 11000’ or so by our best estimates. We had hoped these clouds would burn off but as this hadn’t yet happened by mid-morning we opted to shift our focus to some less committing terrain below the cloud level. We continued up Horton Creek and chose a chute with a southeast aspect that topped out at a little above 10000’. Boot packing was easy and the skiing was very good high-quality corn skiing. While higher elevations may have seen more snow out of the storm last night, we observed no more than an inch of fresh snow on our tour today. Boot pen maxed out at about 20 cm and the snow was supportable down to about 7500’ where it diapered. Looking back up at the peaks after our tour it appeared the north winds had picked up a bit and significant transport was occurring at high elevations.
Partly cloudy skies turned blue bird by mid-afternoon. The temperature was pleasant today and cooler than we expected. At 1 pm the temperature was 28°F at 10,200’.
Winds were light at lower elevations all day and increased noticeably as we gained elevation.