Stevens

I toured up to the base of the Comma Couloir. Starting at 11:30, the hard surfaces on even the SE aspects was a reminder that it's still January. Strictly S aspects were down to bare ground, even at higher elevations. The array of differences in surface conditions was stark even within the same bowl or gully. For example, in one bowl above 9000 ft, I entered the bowl on a SE aspect with bulletproof, a thin layer of dry soft on hard snow on E aspect, soft snow on somewhat breakable crust on NE aspect, then harder snow on N. It depended on sheltered versus wind affected. A few feet often separated surface conditions. I had and used my ski crampons and wished I had boot crampons as I approached the base of Comma. It was often safer to boot up a pitch then try to skin it. Comma looked less filled in than last week. On descending, the only decent conditions were on E and sometimes, NE aspects. Below 8300 ft, the snow was sticky and slow with some bush whacking to get back to the car. Creeks/streams were open and flowing. Thin (1 cm) surface wind slabs above 9K.

Stevens

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