Mount Axtell

Saturday was an amazing day for ski touring with relatively minor avalanche concerns.  We avoided the most drifted terrain features to hedge out bets and found soft powder on northerly terrain decending near the summit.  Many other parties had the same idea with tracks in most of the northerly terrain of Axtell without incident.  I suspect there were a few isolated features scattered across the mountain where a small slab could have been triggered, but we didn't encounter it.  Wet loose avalanche issues also seemed to be a rare problem in most of this terrain. 

We ascended through westerly facing forested terrain to the summit.  No notable observations on the ascent other than signs of wind drifting overnight with tracks from Friday being partially blown in 3rd Bowl.  We avoided the most drifted terrain and didn't encounter signs of instability around 12,000 feet.  I briefly stomped on heavily drifted southeast terrain without result.  There were numerous tracks on steep northerly terrain in 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th bowls without any significant sluffing or avalanches.

Southerly terrain near 12,000 feet remained cool just before noon with little evidence to support wet loose avalanche concerns.