Windy up high, deep in trees @ Lucille

Wind slabs in the open, deep in the trees. That was the story from Lucille today. We pushed into the alpine early where the strong wind was stripping snow and it was uncomfortable to have a hand out of a glove, even for a 5 second video. The cornices were huge and the snow felt slabby. These photos are from a steep, shallow and windy east facing slope at treeline. This small avalanche ran naturally sometime this morning. Wind protected trees were a totally different story where we found 40 to 60 cm of light density storm snow that was billowing over the hood; the riding was ridiculously good. This is one of those times where the riding conditions and avalanche hazard coincide; if you get into the open areas wind slabs are a serious problem, but if you stick to areas protected from wind you can avoid the problem and find incredible riding.