Quick report
Went into the Challenge Cabin for the day while some buddies were staying there. While traveling we did not experience any signs of instability (pits were a different story). The snow was remarakably better than we had anticipated, winds were very light, no gusts, and the snow fell on and off throughout the day. There was 20 cm of new snow that, above 6000', sat on a supportive surface. We traveled from 5600' to 7000' and had progressively deeper new snow that made for excellent skiing. A far cry from our experience in the Middle Fork last weekend. Digging did reavel the deeper persistent layer, which we had react with hard force. At 6900' on a SE aspect we found a 10 cm thick ice crust (finger hard) starting 60 cm down. On a column test it failed on CT6 on top of the ice crust (60 cm down). On an ECT we found ECT26, failing below the layer, 70 cm down. No propogation, HS 105 cm. The 20-30 cm sitting on the ground seemed pretty saturated & frozen, but there was another 20-30 cm of very weak facets sitting above that, beneath the ice crust described above. Our friends dug a pit at the same elevation on a NE aspect and did not have the persistent layer react during tests, until they really started wailing on their ECT. Their pit was 135 cm deep. For what it's worth, the top 20 cm of snow was certainly reactive in both pits - CT8, ECT4, ECT11. We stuck to lower-angle, straigtforward terrain and didn't have any issues whatsoever with snow moving. The new snow was on the denser, hero-y side. All in all the touring was good medicine after the last couple weekends, and so much better than we had expected. If there's any silver lining to the last couple weather systems, it did wonders at this location for burying and sealing in much of the bush.
Avalanche
Natural avalanche observed on the SE face of Baldhead Mountain, just below the summit. We didn't get a great view of it, but the crown did appear to cross the entire slope, about 50-75' below the actual summit. We couldn't see the debris or path it traveled, and it looked to have failed in the new snow due to wind (did not seem to have stepped down).