WTH

Spent the weekend at Wendy Thompson Hut, and while things have changed thought I’d provide some insight as to what the weather was doing up there over the weekend. Friday it was snowing S1 all day, with light-mod S winds, overcast. We rode a SW facing slope at TL, open trees, and found a bit of wind effect at ridgetop in the immediate lee, then beautiful low density pow to the hut. Saturday it was snowing S2-3all day, absolutely nuking, with moderate S/SW winds gusting strong. Temps hovered around -4 all day. In the morning we rode an Easterly line and found highly variable windslab at ridgetop which was not reactive to ski cuts or skier traffic. Windslab abated quickly once away from the immediate lee and the ski quality remained incredible. We then rode multiple laps on a SW aspect, at treeline, open trees in unbelievable, knee to mid thigh deep cold smoke. Upon going to bed, snow had tapered to ~S1, though it remained fairly windy. Sunday morning we rode another SW line and found a noticeable difference, with the storm snow settling into a slab and becoming heavier. There was also some significant wind effect at the top of the line we skied, which disappeared quite quickly. We did not find any signs of instability, though it was obvious there was a significant storm slab starting to form. As we descended from the hut around 1030am, it was warming to near 0 degrees at the hut, and still snowing S1. By the time we reached the highway there was tree bombing abound, pinwheeling from steep features, and the surface snow was moist (below 1400m). Visibility was extremely limited, so we did not have any avalanche observations, though I could imagine significant sluffing in steep alpine terrain, or wind slabs on northern aspects had we been able to see. Would be curious to hear from the folks headed up that we passed on Sunday if they have any avalanche observations from their time at the hut with the significant storm that hit Sunday/monday. Overall, trip for the books. Shared the hut with a bunch of wonderful folks and an excellent custodian (and group) from Washington.