Cirque Forepeak

We chose to try this because of the bomber crusts we'd seen and heard of in the area – despite S, SE aspects. -11ºC in the parking lot at 8 AM. Went up the middle of the drainages and got out of the trees quickly through the northern gully marked on our maps. Saw a sz 1 natural from a few days ago. Once near treeline, skins slid on S aspect crusts so we stuck to N aspects. Crust and ~10 cm powder on top felt solid so we proceeded to summit Cirque Forepeak and skied down north, aiming for a specific entry back into the uptrack gully. By this time – around 1 PM, the sun had started to affect surface snow. Saw pinwheeling and it was easy to make snowballs. We became more cautious and decided to stay away from steep, sun-exposed slopes. We overshot our uptrack gully and realized that it was actually the middle one of three drainages. We instead were caught in a third, more northern one that was not marked on any of our maps or visible from satellite photos. On our way down, traversing to find a way into this unmarked, northernmost drainage, we kicked down a sz 0.5 off a steep SW aspect – 10 cm thick, ran ~10 m and just under 10 m wide. We would not have skied this slope but had felt that crossing it would lead to the easier way down into the drainage. But still, this was very indicative of the spring conditions we're in!!! Snow conditions got slushier as we descended. In hindsight, the Confessions book shows all three drainages well. Lessons learned.