East Peak South Face

We avoided the North facing slopes pkaye reported on yesterday due to a concern of wind loading. The south facing slopes we skied had typically good coverage with some thin spots, especially at higher elevations. Wind effect was clearly evident and a few wind lips proved to be touchy. However any snow movement was minimal, size 0.5 at most, no deeper than 10cm, and running no longer than a meter or two. Higher elevations, above 2000m, are wind scowered and thin.

Another beautiful bluebird day at biggie! Above treeline the wind was moderate and seemed to be coming from the south. Visibility was limited and deteriorated rapidly above 2000m. We avoided North facing slopes which we suspected would be more touchy and wind loaded. The temperature stayed below freezing around -4C. The wind made it difficult to tell whether the snow hitting us in the face was new precip or just wind transport.

Dug a pit at around 2000m on a South facing slope, measured slope angle 33 degrees. The rain crust refernced in other MINs is very much still there and is a bit tricky to describe seeming to be both (relatively) stable and sugary/crumbly. About 30cm of unconsolidated low density storm snow lays on top of this crust. ECTH22, failure 30cm down on the rain crust. Propagation seemed limited and the storm slab appeared to be dry/loose and not very cohesive. We did not hear any whumps or see shooting cracks, both of which were present even inbounds on Saturday.