Kat-to-Koot

Spectacular day route setting on the up-and-over! Signs of warming from the sun in the rime tree forest before the ridge. Only small amounts of new snow available for wind transport visible on isolated terrain features. It was easy to avoid old hard wind slabs in steep terrain by going around them and limiting exposure by spacing the group out with overhead hazards. Cautious riding in variable terrain off the backside which opened up to excellent surface conditions in protected terrain around 2,500ft. 

Below 1,500ft the sun was slowly melting snow on south-facing slopes, keep a heads up and consider wearing a helmet with big rime chunks in the forest! At tree-line winds picked up and on the exposed ridgeline, where there was a mix of sastrugi and rime that had enough grip for skinning. A small amount of recent wind loading was observed with a hard-packed wind slab unreactive on test slopes. Near the summit, the smooth rounded texture of the old wind slab was more difficult to travel on compared to the edgable rime snow. 

Conditions off the summit were variable with the mix of sastrugi and wind-pack that eventually gave way to smooth and soft turns down to about 1,500ft. Old ski tracks at lower elevations were re-frozen and made for more variability.