Touring in powder valley

Expectations were low as we left the whitepass this morning with moderate winds out of the north and poor visibility. Our drive inland was rewarded with better visibility, a bit less wind, and some surprisingly sheltered riding. We dug a pit and found 2 prominent layers down 55 and 73 cm on an east aspect at 1350m. Tests on an extended column test where hard but propagated the whole block with quite a lot of energy. Our persistent layer is definitely present out here! We saw some natural windslab avalanches from the alpine terrain but some were large enough to make it into the trees. We stuck to areas sheltered from the wind by trees and terrain, without large slopes above where there was some great snow to be had!