Quick report
Utilized sled access to wilderness boundary at Ball Butte, with objective of skiing the N/NE terrain of Broken Top above No-Name Lake. Encountered mixed surface snow conditions: loose unconsolidated powder, isolated sun crust, and widespread wind crust. Some low incidence angle sunshine, though largely high cloud diffusion. Westerly winds light at 7600’, moderate at ridge line around Smiley’s 8230’, scattered in direction on NE slopes. Light snow transport visible off ridge line was visible part of the day. Stepped out slowly, given the forecast’s moderate rating for wind slab problems in these aspects. Used test slopes below SE flank of BT, with no reactivity on convex rollover. Toured up the SE flank and competed an ECT at 7730’ on a SE aspect. ECTX (no propagation), shallow depth at 60cm, right side up (fist density at surface, 4-finger at base of new snow, 1-finger at consolidated old snow down to ground. The obvious new/old snow interface was not reactive here. Skied down from the ridge on same aspect, found our best skiing here (most unconsolidated pow). Proceeded towards objective, toured up to southern moraine of No-Name Lake, ascended to the base of the cliffs below The Ramp. Completed a second ECT at 8200’ on a N/NE aspect, finding a much deeper snowpack at 160cm, with more layers of interest. Despite this, another ECTX (no propagation). Densities of new snow layers ranging from fist to 4-finger, with some sandwiching of softer, less coherent layers and more firm, cohesive layers. Toured 3/4 up the couloir just W of this position above No-Name Lake, decided we didn’t like the increasing cohesion/wind slab we were finding in the couloir and despite finding no glaring red flags, chose to be conservative and ski down to lake level, finding mixed moderate/heavy pow and a breakable but thin and slightly hooky wind crust. ECT videos linked.