Ningunsaw pass

<p>Some observations through the period Fri Feb 18 to Sun Feb 20 at Ningunsaw pass. Fri storm was rain below 900m. Starting between 925m to 975m the storm produced 10-15cm over old rain crust. Above 1000m the buried rain crust was no longer present, but solar aspects had weak buried sun crust through treeline and alpine.  Strong west winds through the Fri storm held moderate through Saturday, starting to switch to strong west then northerly outflow on Sunday. East through South aspects were starting to wind load. Fri pm a natural cycle produced sz 1-2 wet loose slides initiating in steep open terrain in the ~800-950m rain to snow transition running to mid to lower track on Snowback MoTI paths. Sunday morning several new  sz 1-2 windslab crowns were visible on east and south aspects initiating in steep unsupported terrain, one at least from loose snow sluff trigger. Quick tests produced only stubborn slab with little propagation, and ski cutting small features produced no results. The narrow band of new snow on rain crust was a touch more reactive, but our locations had no real slab propagation qualities or sufficient depth - though on the drive home I did see one sz2 slab below treeline in a very large opening in a location I presume had wind loading and more slab cohesion Some older cornice failure from last week on north aspect visible with no slab release. Alpine snow surface conditions variable, from fist powder in sheltered locations, to wind etched  older hardslab, to wind exposed crusty surfaces. Below ~950m be ready for some sporty crust skiiing. On Fri we only skied short 25 deg tree runs from 1100m to 950m, Sat we ventured to just above treeline and skied 30 deg or less supported tree glade runs. On Sunday we ventured to alpine and skied longer 30 deg or less supported runs (other than some 35 deg col entrances that had already been heli skied and cornice cut).</p>