I'm In A Glass Case (a fish bowl) Of Emotion

Today, we embraced the harvest and tried to find some corn in the Fish Bowl. The approach was rugged; ski crampons are mandatory. A surface crust makes travel fast and easy (with the aforementioned crampons). This crust exists on all aspects up to at least 1600 m, and is thicker on solar aspects. We managed to drop in just before the sun crested the ridge, and the shade engulfed the ridge. We skied 2-3 cm of soft, melted snow on a supportive crust. As soon as we dipped into the shade, the snow surface had already refrozen, making the last 100 m of our descent...challenging. All this to say, you can find some soft snow in the sun, but timing is key; waiting too late can increase the avalanche hazard, and skiing in the shade or too early can be treacherous. Keep an eye out for snowballing, pinwheeling, and wet surface snow while travelling. Today it was +6.2 degrees. Skies were scattered in the AM and few in the afternoon. Winds were Light from the West. We climbed to 1600 m and found a bridging crust on all aspects at that elevation. We dug on a south-facing aspect at 1600 m and found 15 cm of mid-January crust. This crust has begun to facet and has a layer of small facets above it. Below this, the snowpack is strong and well settled. Throughout the day, we observed no new avalanches, or snowballing. There was evidence of a few natural avalanches up to size 2.0 from the previous 24-48 hours.