Dolomite Circuit

Skied the Dolomite Circuit today, generally good travel conditions. Still feels like early season. Skin track up Helen Creek was established and easy to follow with some willowbashing in the slide paths and an easy creek crossing. Once above treeline we found trail breaking to be reasonable with average ski pen of 10-20cm. On solar aspects around 2300-2400m we found the Dec 7 crust ~10cm under the surface. Semi supportive varying based on how exposed aspect is to direct Sunlight. On steeper solar aspects the crust is generally thicker. Can make for challenging skinning as loose snow above will slide away leaving you slipping on the crust. Didn't start feeling the Oct crust with pole probing until about 2250m, distribution seems pretty variable. In the alpine we observed wind effect with loading on E and SE aspects. Thickness and stiffness of windslab variable, but generally seemed to be softer except in wind blasted areas. Found good enough skiing on E aspects down to Katherine lake. Hs ~50-60 in the basin N of Dolomite. Ski down from Dolomite-OXO pass was mostly supportive windslab up top transitioning to soft fist snow down low. Plenty of rocks visible, but easy enough to just ski around them. Skiing BTL down from Dolomite shoulder had 30-40cm, logs poke out, but is workable if you're used to survival skiing. Saw less avalanche debris than expected, some 1.5s out of the crossloaded gullies W of Dolomite, and debris from a sz 2-2.5 E of Cirque pk Some tracks up on Puzzle/OXO ramp, looked like ok skiing if you avoid the rocks. See pictures for photo of the ramp