Tonsina Glacier

We traveled from Girls, over Hoodoo to Tonsina glacier. Snow cover was icy from pipeline trail on all areas of Tsaina river drainage back to the toe of Tsaina glacier. No red flags in the Tsaina river drainage. Snowcover on lower Hoodoo glacier is sufficient for snowmachine travel, sticking to moraines, and became 10" of powder / soft faceted snow at 2700' on the north moraine. No cracking, whumpfs, collapses observed on Hoodoo. Snow changed to dense soft wind effected snow at the pass from 4300'-5300'. The north branch of Hoodoo from 2500-5000' held low-wind effect powder / soft faceted snow. No red flags observed in this region. South branch of Tsaina and Tonsina glaciers held soft snow from 2500'-3000', where it turned to firm and dense wind effected snow, and remained in that condition on the main branch of Tonsina. We skied on a north face @ 4000'-5000' approaching 35 degrees, and did not experience red flags. While we did not observe red flags triggered by our party, there were many large natural avalanches that may have occurred in the week previous, on all aspects, and elevations into the high alpine, running further into valley's than expected, particularly into the upper Tsaina glacier drainage. Early season conditions exist for crevasses; more holes exposed than most people (myself included) may be used to seeing, when compared to March-April. Particularly at the toe and pass of Hoodoo, and toe of Tsaina.

Quick report