Quick report
Route and pictures at: https://www.strava.com/activities/9023862574 … although I repeated the picture here of the Hillman wet slide debris. Descriptions follow here only of the snow conditions in steeper terrain in the four glacial cirques that I skied. (Otherwise, the above treeline travel was quite pleasant, both skiing and skinning, especially for the struggles at times against high winds.) Skinning up Hillman’s Highway at around 8am the snow conditions were *exactly* the same as around 5:30 the prior evening. Either the overnight temperature drop hadn’t changed the snow much, or the early-morning snow had already transformed the snow back into mush, or some combination of the two. In Oakes Gulf though, the powder I had skied in Airplane Bowl the prior afternoon was now consolidated! Skied beautifully at first (despite no longer being powder), but the final ~100’ of the ~600’ easily skiable vertical (before getting into trees) was quite firm, to the extent that it would have been downright sketchy with more pitch. I suspect that wrapping further to the skier’s right of Airplane Bowl slightly changed the aspect (close inspection of the Strava map seems to show a little terrain fold that emphasizes more of the W in the generally SW aspect, as opposed to where I started that emphasizes more of the S in the SW aspect), given that the elevation profile of the snow’s firmness was the exact opposite of expected (and given my prior experience with Airplane Bowl becoming far more firm higher up on skier’s left). Further to the skier’s right of Airplane Bowl also has a bit more pitch, and therefore the prior afternoon I had observed numerous rollerballs, which seemed to be of the same extent despite how a few more hours of late-afternoon and early-afternoon sun exposure had occurred on the SW aspect since I had been there the prior afternoon. Skinning out of Airplane Bowl was therefore firm enough that I affixed ski crampons, although when I planted my poles securely for kick turns, my poles would penetrate a couple feet, so clearly the overnight freeze was only of a thin surface layer. Burt was mainly nice spring snow, and only the most minimal of rollerballs where I skied IIRC, with the terrain always opening back up almost as soon as I despaired for the continuity amidst the trees. I angled back out a different way so as to connect with the Cog ASAP, although unfortunately that put me on more of a NW aspect with some firmer sections. Once again, ski crampons were helpful, and once again, planning my poles securely for kick turns was not very helpful since they plunged in so far, i.e., through the thin surface layer refreeze. GoS Snowfields/Sandbox had minimal rollerballs but I angled in from the far skier’s left on a traversing route to avoid the steepest rollover. (Did not bother trying to take a look at any of the gullies.) Snow was very soft yet somehow skied nicely (even on 77mm waist width skis), totally unlike the nearly unskiable deep mush of the middle stretch of Hillman’s Highway the prior evening. Dropped into Hillman’s Highway hoping that the upper elevations would still be decent like the prior evening and then below that the previously nearly unskiably deep mush had been skied in – to my relief, both counts were correct! I even went up from the base for a partial skin/ski lap to ski the reemerging monster moguls. The tradeoff though was that although I was able to skin for ~500’ vertical from the base, anything further would have been nearly impossible, and skinning up all the way would have been entirely impossible. Sherb was still just as delightful as the prior evening, but just one portage to the #5 Crossover. Massive melting on the TRT though, so the downhiking is more difficult amidst the emerging rocks, although still plenty of opportunities for relatively easy boot glissading on the snow, but those opportunities must be rapidly diminishing each day.
Avalanche
Same wet slide as reported here: https://www.mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org/observations/#/view/297520b9-f770-44c5-ac49-688b0e99fcef ... but that observation lacked a picture, which I'm including in my observation. Unfortunately I forgot to measure the vertical, but probably only around 100'. Before I read that report, I thought the trigger might be related to how the debris path appeared to start directly underneath a rock buttress (which is obscured by the sun glare in my picture). But upon further reflection, perhaps meltwater from that point was further lubricating the interface between the new snow and the old snow? Or could just be random chance that the only wet slide in Hillman was fairly low down with far less pitch than up above? (And also far less pitch than the other observed slides in Chute, Great Gulf, and Lobster Claw. I’m not counting the observation for Left Gully from Sunday though since that looks like the typical spring runnel – definitely a hazard, but those can happen repeatedly throughout spring days on the same line.) Or perhaps the hockey stop said to have been performed by the triggering skier was more stressful to the interface than any of the skiing done above on steeper terrain? (Or all of the above!)