Orca Bowl

Skinned up into Orca bowl from the bridge. Around -10degC with moderate winds and variable visibility. No signs of instability or recent activity. Several hand shear tests on the way up showed about 30cm of powder on a crust layer but it was well bonded and nothing was moving. Shovel tilt test reiterated this. Conducted an ECT at around 1800m elevation on a NE aspect of 30deg and sparse trees, which produced an ECTX result. The only layer we found was a ~4cm crust about 40cm down but it did not react, even with extra encouragement. Snow density was fist to 3-4 finger above and below, getting progressively firmer with depth. The skiing down was excellent. The snow was slightly sugary on the surface at the higher elevations. The middle elevation band from 1300-1650 was light and dry. We picked a mostly low angle route up and down but skied some steeper pitches and they were great. Would have been happy skiing some of the steeper chutes on the E ridge with a bit more vis.