Tutshi

We gambled on an optimistic forecast for broken skies (that materialized too late) to push into the south-east facing alpine bowls above tushi. Surface conditions ranged from low-density new snow and near-surface facets in sheltered terrain to widespread firm wind affected surfaces in the alpine. We found 8mm surface hoar in sheltered treeline meadows. Ski crampons would have actually have been helpfull on steeper features the alpine today. The December 2nd crust can be found down 50cm and extends up to 1400m. Interestingly it was significantly more robust here than what I have encountered elsewhere. Currently, the overlying snowpack lacks the slab characteristics for this layer to be a concern in sheltered terrain. Ultimately, we turned around as the slope angle increased in the last 200 hundred meters shy of ridgecrest due to a total lack of visibility and quite variable ski conditions rather than avalanche concerns. We descended to Tushi lake via the W facing slide paths just. It still needs a bit more snow to hid the avalanche debris from the early December cycle. Alder that would be unskiable with a more typical early season snowpack actually skied quite well.