Quick report
Tour from Echo Lakes Sno-Park (9:30am) to Ralston Peak via southern side of thinning Echo Lakes to Ralston’s NE Ridge. Quick west-side recon ski to 8700’ before exit via eastern ridge hike/scramble and traversing ski descent back to mid-Lower Echo Lake (8pm). Reasonably supportive and efficient (tho quickly-dampening to skins) travel conditions all day, albeit much by boot pack due skin malfunction. Ski portions were very stable, though most likely shedding locations occurred after shadowing/surface cooling had begun. Large cornice failure observations and remaining ones on North and East cirque kept me very cautious with route-finding both below and on top of them. Finally, avoided being on top of Echo Lakes proper on ascent bc unfamiliar with such travel here. On return, noticed fresh skate-skiing tracks so cautiously followed suit (w deployed whippet at the ready jic). No issues and track still felt very supportable most of the time, though did feel a couple minor settlings and noticed a number of surface ice cracks revealing mix of water and ice below which pole couldn’t push thru.
Avalanche
D1-2 Cornice Fall and Rollerball-induced Loose Wet Point Releases on E-NE-N aspects between 8-9.2K’ in Ralston’s North & East cirques. Also noted a fresh-looking sizable east-facing wind slab crown immediately below corniced ridge lip, but as I never saw a debris field, think just a perfectly sheltered and well-preserved historical crown.