Skintrack Pondering: Spring is Here. What Does It All Mean?
By Xan Marshland, FOW
A glimpse at where we're headed. Teton Range, WY. FOW: Pep Fujas // Photo: Ken Etzel (@ken_etzel)
Word on the street is that Spring is here. But what does it all mean?!
I'm often off the back when it comes to current events, so I channeled my inner investigative journalist and checked in with freeskiing icon and known Spring enjoyer Pep Fujas to get the inside scoop. Below is our hard-hitting, tell-all interview.
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Xan: Hey Pep. Someone who I don't really trust just told me that today is the first day of Spring. Is this for real? What's going on here?
Pep: Yeah, it's for real. Let’s break it down. After every Winter, the northern hemisphere begins to tilt back toward the sun, making the days gradually longer and the nights shorter. Today, we reach a perfect, 50-50 balance of day and night, which means our hemisphere will soon have more time to heat up than cool down. This bi-yearly event is known as the Equinox. Capiche?
That's crazy, you're telling me this happens every year?
Do you live under a rock? Were you grown in a fermentation tank like our microalgae? This will take place until the sun implodes. Get used to it.
Humans were tracking and celebrating the Spring Equinox thousands of years before the avalanche beacon was invented. Crazy, right? Salisbury, UK.
Okay, I'm starting to wrap my mind around the whole Equinox thing, but let's focus on what's actually important for a second: Me. How will the Spring Equinox affect my life?
I can't predict your future entirely, but it does mean that a diverse array of human-powered joy will soon be at your fingertips. In the Wasatch, we have a lot more powder coming in the next few days, and you can bet that we'll be surfing the hills until there's no more surf to be had.
Despite all that, we'll also be seeing - on average - a more stable snowpack. This seasonal trend generally holds true across all locations, regardless of how sketchy and volatile your midwinter snowpack may have been. Persistent weak layers often get removed from local avalanche forecasts. When we do get those happy blessings of late season pow, it's more likely that we can get the most out of them. Pair that up with more hours of daylight, and you've got a delicious combo.
Savor the simple things. Nick gets it. Esplanade Range, BC. FOW: Nick Russell // Photo: Jack Dawe (@wjackdawe)
Later in the Spring, the snowpack goes isothermal and becomes more homogenous. Even better... freeze-thaw cycles yield Spring corn harvests! Volcano missions and more are just around the corner.
An important caveat: backcountry hazards don't disappear in the Spring; they change. Timing is critical. But, if you know what to look for and how to manage the risks thoughtfully, the late Spring opens up a lot of high alpine terrain that may have been less accessible just a month ago.
At this point in the exchange, my mind was absolutely blown. My hands were shaking. Sparks were flying. Was Pep seriously telling me that the best times in the alpine were yet to come?
Overwhelmed by this revelation, I hung up on Pep mid-sentence to Google Stonehenge and shop for skin wax.
Ahh yes, the crayon of Spring. The Equinox essential. The patron saint of sticky skinners. Don't leave home without it. Wasatch Range, UT. FOW: Xan Marshland // Photo: Settie Harrison (@settie7)
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