Quick report
Our party of two toured up to Hillman's Highway this morning departing PNVC at 0700 and arriving at the bottom of Hillman's by 0815. 3-6 inches of fresh snow from the previous 24 hours had drifted into the snowbanks along the Sherburne. Upon arrival at the base of Hillman's we could see far less of the older frozen bed surface than earlier this week. Visually, there is much more bright white new snow than the darker older snow in the path of Hillman's. We also could see wind-carried snow streaming over the tops of the ravines and ridegelines. In Hillman's proper, we found variable snow especially above the intersection with Dodge's Drop. Underfoot we found old frozen snow, fresh unconsolidated low-density snow around 3 inches thick, and drifted snow that was forming windslabs of variable thickness and reactivity. Winds were strong with gusts spinning across the compass dial. Crampons were absolutely essential for booting up Hillman's. The forming windslabs were punchy, four finger to fist-hard, and were moderately reactive based on several handshear tests. Most broke on isolation or with light force, at 6-12 inches thick. We were concerned by these resuts, as well as our inability to visually tell the difference between the slabs and fresh snow. Probing ahead with ski poles or kicking into the snow were the only ways we could tell if we were on a slab. We transitioned at 4800ft in the lower part of the climbers-left split. Skiing was scratchy on the old snow, grabby in the windslabs, but quite nice in the fresh snow. None of the windslabs released on us, although an aggressive turn or two did break loose some chunks. The JSST is skiing well for the springtime, and has vastly improved in the last 48 hours.