Sledding with Skis

A good day to take the skis for a spin up the Blunt! (Caution the road up to staging is super muddy and rutted now.) The new snow we were hoping to ski ended up being too crusty after the overnight freeze to make for good riding, so we ditched the skis in a meadow and sledded up to the alpine to look around. Our main goal was to hunt for the persistent weak layer and see if it's still a player on those high alpine north and easterly slopes. We found that it is! The crust/facet layer down 70 cm popped and failed just with isolating the column and no taps - which is spicier than we were anticipating! We also found another concerning layer of preserved surface hoar crystals buried 100 cm. It seems to us that the persistent weak layers are only an issue in very isolated areas, but it's hard to pinpoint where those are. For us, adopting a continued conservative mindset and terrain choice for high alpine north through east-facing slopes has been the way to go. Otherwise, some great views to be had and travel is easy with a supportive crust on top in most areas.