Mystic Valley tree skiing

<p>Skied steep cliffs and trees into Mystic Valley from looker's right of the bench below the Dome. Dug prior to skiing and found the facet interface above the 3-5cm thick crust, this was beneath approximately 60cm of non-cohesive storm snow. The interface was reactive to medium loading steps through two different isolated compression tests. This interface was also reactive in an extended column CT in the medium loading step range, but did not propagate through the column. All failures were planar. The skiing was ridiculous! Great powder, but due to the instability we steered clear of open, alpine, convex faces. We did manage to pull out a single small isolated storm slab with about a 50cm crown, maybe 10 meters wide, and on a 40-45 degree slope. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Dense trees, Steep slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Snow Conditions

Deep powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Stormy, Cloudy, Foggy.