Selkirks-Priest Lake

Skied from 5300' to 6700' on a West facing, treed slope. Hand shears down low showed 2 near-surface layers that popped while cutting the back of the block with pole. At about 5850' I started poking for layers with my folding measuring stick and found a thin crust around 11" and a thicker one at about 20". Did not examine. From about 5800' on up the snow cracked soft 4" slabs off my skis, with no propagation. I heard & felt one whoompf 300-400' below the ridge. The snow was a bit wind stiffened the last 200' to the ridge lines, so dug a pit at 6450' in a small clearing below the ridge, West facing. Snow was 67" deep, but I only dug the top 30" for my stability tests. CT4 @7", CT9 @10", CT12 @15". Fist hard top 4". 4F down to the crusts. 1F below lower crust. Rotten snow on top and bottom of lower crust. The upper crusts were about 1/4" thick., the lower crust closer to 1/2". The lower crust would be my concern as it slid easy on that thicker crust. No wind, cloudy skies. On the ridge there was evidence of wind, but the snow was still rather soft. The skiing was great. I skied a wind-sheltered NW aspects off of a West-facing finger ridge for a couple of dandy runs. I had some sloughing off of turns, and tried to get some steeper pitches to pop with no results. One of those days where I look over my shoulders a lot while skiing...That all said, I wouldn't trust this snow on exposed, open slopes or lines without escape routes. Any shallow pack areas, like under rock bands would be a no-go as well until things settle out. A snow machine or bike is much more likely to have undesired consequences given the weak layers.

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