Cayoosh Creek

Exploratory day in Cayoosh Creek. There was about 25cm of low-density snow from the road up to the first boulder field where it got much deeper from wind depositing snow from up the valley. The winds were ripping on the ridges and down Cayoosh Creek from the basin. We found very reactive wind slabs forming just below the lake and observed enough crowns on higher slopes to call it there. Slabs around the lake were about 40cm thick and cracks propagated about 5m as we skinned along past the boulders. Hand sheers produced easy results on thick slabs that ran planar on light snow above a crust below. We saw many crowns on the steeper slopes above the lake and across the basin (see pictures 1,2,3). We could also see a massive crown on one of the surrounding sub-peaks of Cayoosh (see picture 4). Look just below the rock band in the center frame.

We saw many crowns on the steeper slopes above the lake and across the basin (see pictures 1,2,3). We could also see a massive crown on one of the surrounding sub-peaks of Cayoosh (see picture 4). Look just below the rock band in the center frame. I estimated size 3 given how far away we were and how big it still looked.