Quick report
My touring partner and I, hopeful from the recent pro observation on Jim Hill, headed up onto North Chiwaukum in search of soft, dry snow in the high country. Not much was to be found. The ascent on the northwest arm of North Chiwaukum was expectedly poor. Mixed depths of crust from tree bombs and elevation change made travel on skins, ski crampons, and boot crampons each poor at different times. Boot crampons were consistently the least poor, so we did the majority of vertical by booting. A short section of cold, wind-sheltered snow out of the way of tree bombs at 6100'-6500' did indeed hold cold powder that was easily skinned. The Swath itself was surprisingly firm, and in places icy, all the way up to the summit of North Chiwaukum. The couloir at the top of The Swath was best skied safely by side-slipping, though thankfully it was still edgeable. Some surfaces further down into the bowl yielded a few good turns over edgeable, wind-scoured, fully-supportive, dry snow. Otherwise, ice and tail-catching wind crust was most of what was to be found. As other reports have noted, surface hoar was widespread. A couple of small pockets of wind-drifted snow gave way, but they were never more than a couple inches deep, and a few feet wide. There was a stiff WNW wind at 6900' (maybe 30-40 mph) coming over the saddle between N Chiwuakum and Middle Chiwaukum. Otherwise, wind was very light, even on the summit of N Chiwaukum. The largest danger by far was long sliding falls, even on these high-elevation, open north aspects. Carry an ice axe and crampons!