Happy in Heartbreak

East side of the Flathead today, right up against the AB border. We had mostly blue skies and were able to see far and wide. We saw no recent avalanches, no signs of instability, had no significant test results in (one) hasty pit. In the Alpine here, its usual to have plenty of wind. Today was unusually calm, but previous wind had done a great job of stiffening the surface snow in any exposed area. We had a solid college try at triggering a cornice fall (shoveling, stomping, cord-cutting) on a small no-consequence crossloaded feature, and eventually got a few pieces to go, but we described it as “unreactive”. We’re not completely discounting cornices as a hazard, and will be on the lookout when we get proper warming and / or loading from new snow or wind. Despite the clear skies and beautiful bright sunshine, the temperatures stayed cool: -16 early on at the staging, with a high of -10 at 2100 m by 2pm. That, together with a light SW wind, kept the snow dry everywhere we were. …… and it was BEAUTIFUL!