Nowcast - High pressure homesteading over the western US delivers clear skies with current temperatures hovering in the upper teens °F. Winds blowing from the west ramped up overnight and currently spin remote weather station anemometer propellers in the 20's and 30's mph near the high peaks.

Forecast - Expect sunny skies and high temperatures climbing into the low and mid 30's °F. Winds blowing from the west remain in the reasonable category until around dinnertime when they ramp into the 40's and switch to the northwest. Overnight low dips into the teens.

Futurecast - We appreciate your call, but the winter weather department has stepped away from its desk and for efficiency sake, forwarded all inquiries. So, look for the winter tanning trend continuing through the work week... sunshine and mild temperatures. The end of the week storm is looking like more like a non-event with a return to high pressure bringing us into the third week of January.

Travel Conditions - Supportable snow depths across the range register in the 1'-4' category above 9,000'. Below that, and on many solar aspects, the pack is thin or even non-existent, and access is a challenging mixed bag of patience and perseverance... with a little suffer-fest thrown in to keep ya honest. Powder is becoming an elusive, unicorn-esque commodity and takes a little homework to score. For the best riding, I'm gunnin' for mid and upper elevation, wind sheltered, polar terrain.

Mid-January sure is looking a bit like March out there on the South Slope near Hannah. Low elevations have taken a hard hit over that past week making travel downright industrial in some areas.

Meanwhile, over the weekend on the North Slope, Ted and I did the north-slope two step, dancing into open season with the mindset of, " feeling very comfortable stepping into big terrain because we've been tracking the snowpack all season, and avoided any terrain where we could trigger even a small avalanche". See more from our travels, here.