Rampart Bowl path/Mushroom People area

<p>All Winter Restricted Areas closed. Wx fx: nil precipitation, low SW wind at ridge top and FL near valley bottom. Went to the Mushroom People area. Very soft 25 cm deep storm slabs, slightly upside down snowpack, easily triggered on steep unsupported features along the Asulkan Valley skin track. Ski penetration up to 40 cm while breaking trail in the open just left of the trees lookers left of the Mushroom People. We stayed close to the trees as much as the terrain allowed us to. Some tracks from the last 24-48 hrs could be seen under the 20 cm that had fallen overnight. The majority of our skin track on the lower steeper pitch went across sloughs that had been triggered by treebombs. Many of the steeper rolls/pillows were investigated, all revealing an instability within the storm snow down 20-45 cm. Shooting cracks from that same layer were observed at many switchbacks and jumping on the top of switchbacks almost always resulted in the triggering of a soft 20-45 cm thick slab. One isolated settlement (whoomph heard, not felt) in a flat spot around 1700m. A test pit was done at 1800 m, see Snowpack tab. The three runs to the bottom were absolutely all time with faceshots nearly every turn. Many pillows collapsed as we skied over them and aside from a few SZ 1 sloughs in steeper terrain, no other sign of instability were noticed while skiing down. Surprisingly, there was no other group in the area and the Mushroom People proper were still entirely untracked at the end of the day.</p>

Weather Report

<p>Socked in in the alpine most of the day, ceiling lifted significantly less than one hour before sunset.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes, Steep slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Sunny slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

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

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Snow Conditions

Deep powder.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy.