Elsey - groomers and schmoo

darthekai , Saturday 1st March, 2025 11:15PM

Got quote hot about 10am. pretty chill day except a brief period of excitement when we set off an avy below us from the top of the ridge. Hang fire kept creeping the slide closer and closer to where we were standing. Skiing was like a groomer where it was wind effected, actually not bad. Deep heavy schmoo down lower. Another party was skiing a North face north of us and reported similar conditions (but theirs sounded better). pit on 25 degree open slope near treeline: hard result on column test. Sudden planar failure with very little resistance. Failed I assume in the exact same spot the slide triggered. A layer of cold facets under the storm snow. saw lots of recent avys in the alpine, mostly on north or north east faces in depressions.

Very sloppy snow. Loose. Sometimes knee+ deep ski pen. Sometimes ankle deep. Foot falls all the way down.

Easy slide. Gulley feature full of snow, everything went down, cleaned the walls off as it went.