Gulf of Slides

We toured into the Gulf of Slides via the Graham Trail this AM. Observing how filled in Main Gully was above the choke compared to earlier this week, we decided to climb Gully #2. Starting at 4190', we got hand shears to fail on SE aspects 26 cm down onto the ice crust, and identified a hard slab problem. The stiffness of the slab varied from 1F to pencil but it was found throughout the snowpack on our aspect. In wind-sheltered areas of Gully #2 on climbers left at 4300', we observed shooting cracks and found an isolated fist-hard slab that broke 26-28cm down on the ice crust. We then toured into the Sandbox, where we found similar widespread hard slabs, which had 4-6cm of 4F/FH windslab on top. Overall, there is good skiing to be had in these areas but there is potential for the incoming snow to bury the problem layer on these SE aspects, and a pretty good chance Main cycles naturally with the projected snowfall. don your cheetah print the hard slabs are hard slabbing what will this snow do

Quick report