Observation: Coalpit

For our tour we traveled up the Y couloir and followed the ridgeline from the top of the Y to the top of North Thunder Mountain, descended Coalpit headwall and traversed back to the top of the Y descending from there to the road. Heavy skier traffic and any subsequent loose dry avalanches from the previous day made for pleasant uphill travel in the Y, and marginal skiing conditions. Any remaining undistrubed surface snow in this terrain feature was rapidly faceting. On the North thunder Mountain ridgeline we found mostly wind stripped snow surfaces with pronounced sastrugi and prevailing winds from the W-SW. There were a few pockets of soft wind drifted snow that released under foot, no larger than 5-10 feet and 15 cm deep. Snow on the north facing headwall was predominatly undisturbed by wind, and we obsereved dozens of small loose dry avalanches from the previous day. With settlement there was almost no loose dry movement in the new snow which made for good, safe skiing.