Big Blue glacier & valley

<p>Skiied from Outhouse parking lot to southernmost summit of Big Blue glacier. Travel in AM was excellent with a supportive crust throughout valleybottom all the way to glacier toe. Also the lake crossing by the rail tracks had no overflow and seemed solid. Snow on glacier was generally quite good, packed powder interspersed with hard & crusty windslabs. Huge slides with wild crown lines on north facing slopes of big blue valley from last avalanche cycle, and lots of wet loose slides on south facing aspects. No slides on glacier proper, we skinned up on looker's left of the toe and skied back down the same way. We could see sags where the usual crevasses are on looker's right of first convex roll of the glacier. Even in PM the glacier snow surface remained cold, but once off the glacier the snowpack had turned isothermal. Sunday we skiied a fun, short, mellow south facing chute in big blue valley and nailed corn timing (~2pm). Long but rewarding days with fast travel and good snow (still!) to be found up high. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Sunny slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Steep slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Wet, Hard, Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Warm, Sunny.