7 Steps of Bluebird

Bluebird sunny day (2019-01-27) from Asulkan hut. Ventured into the alpine due to reports and evidence of soft slab avalanches near tree line on steep aspects above the mousetrap. Yesterday’s skin in was warm and cloudy from the parking lot to the hut. The cold front came in the early evening and deposited 5ish cm overnight. Avalanche debris in the mousetrap looked like soft slab running on a crust 20-30 cm deep (Jan 17 SH?). Crowns were 20-30m+ wide and ran 20-40 m to the creek or skin track.

Test pit located around 2300 m on a mellow slope (15degree) west aspect below a rock/boulder exposure. Wanted to identify depth and integrity of deeper PWL and presence of a wind slab noted in the public bulletin. HS = 75 cm SH buried under 10 cm of recent storm snow, hard compression test results and non-planar break results. CTH 23 (BRK) down 10 cm on suspected Jan 17 SH x2 DTN - no results from deep tap test ECTX - no failure or propagation from extended column test Upper 30 cm of snowpack was Fist to 1F resistance, it sits on a 4F faceted center above a Pencil hard to ground ice/decomposing facet/mixture. From the test pit we ascended to Young’s Peak. Upper head wall had recent storm snow on a supportive crust, skinning was manageable until the top third of the ridge and we boot packed avoiding the cornices lookers right. Variable wind affect across the slope required responsible skiing down, otherwise the lower face had boot top pow and skied great.