Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
I skied the South, East, and North faces of Stuart peak and made the following observations: Lots of new snow over the past week with wind has produced wind slabs, however the wind slabs were not very reactive, with only isolated cracking in steep wind pillows. I dug a pit around 7500 feet on a lightly wind loaded East aspect about 50 feet below the South ridge of Stuart. Results were ECTN 5 at 20 cm (last couple of day snow), ECTN 17 at 50 cm, and ECTN high 20s in between the Christmas vintage crusts. I saw a fairly recent crown from a distance on a very steep wind loaded SE slope well below the ridge around 6,500 feet, which was surprising. No other signs of natural avalanches. With pit results consistent with my visual observations, my assessment was that red flags were present (quantity of new snow and wind), but slabs appeared to have healed up. I felt OK skiing avalanche terrain. Ski quality was great on all aspects.