Crystal Area (Bullion, Crown, Morse, Pickhandle)

We skinned the usual approach to Bullion Basin (very thin down low!) and then took one short, N-facing one-by-one lap off the ridge between Bullion and Pickhandle. There was some amount of sloughing, but we felt good enough about the snow to head for Bullion Peak to look at the N aspect. From the top of Bullion Peak, it was clear that the W wind had been busy — there were sastrugi transverse to the fall line on the N-facing line, so we decided to look elsewhere. We looked into Union Basin from the ridge but didn't have a good collective feeling about the combination of slope angle and terrain based on the forecast. We then skin-skied and skinned the ridge over to Crown Point, inspecting possible entry points to ski into Union. We triggered one small cornice drop (broke along the ridge line along some small trees) that broke up and slide downslope 40-50' but didn't propagate or entrain more snow. While skinning on one smaller, W-facing open area, we had isolated shooting cracks, 2-3' in the upper 2-3" of snow but with no propagation or movement downslope. Coverage on the top of Crown Point was 4-8" of wind-hammered snow over the ground (as it often is). Working down the ridge toward Pickhandle Gap, we found stable, deep, dry powder on the SSE aspect and had a few enjoyable laps from the ridge at ~6250 down to ~5450 where the trees tighten a bit. The wind, snowfall, and settling partially erased our down tracks between laps. We returned to the resort by dropping NW from Pickhandle Gap and schlepping across the flats of the basin, and the overall exit was even a bit more "sporty" than usual with open creeks and thin coverage in tight trees. The snow on the NW aspect below Pickhandle Gap was notably heavier.

Quick report