Tepee Basin

We got a good look at all the steep slopes along Skyline Ridge that face Tepee Basin and saw only one recent slab avalanche. It was a soft slab that looks to have broken during the storm earlier in the week (approx 100 ft wide, and ran 100 vertical feet). We also saw many small, dry loose sluffs in this weeks storm snow, but these will have stabilized and are no longer an issue. We got no significant cracking or collapsing. 

There was little wind affect throughout the basin, but we did find some drifts and fresh (small) cornice features along the highest ridgeline we traveled on. 

We dug on a north and south aspect at around 9500 ft and got ECTNs in the teens and 20s on layers in upper 2 ft of the snowpack. The January dry spell facets had percolation columns through them on the south aspect and were pretty unremarkable and fairly strong on the north. We did find a thin layer of near surface facets underneath the latest snow in one pit, but it also was not reactive.

Clouds moved in and out throught the day, producing occassional flurries of snow, with only a dusting accumulating during the day.