North sister

Carried the skis out to villard glacier and didnt find continuous snow till basically the foot of the glacier. There was a layer cake of multiple crusts with loose sugary facets in between. We started going up a line that held pockets of fresh snow but when we got to the wind-sheltered powder it was shooting cracks 2ft from each footstep so we rode back down and picked out a line that looked scoured and cautiously headed up. Odd combination of conditions where the crust would hand shear very easily on the faceted layers. Sometimes before even isolating a block it would break free but the crust seemed cohesive enough not to propagate fractures. Occasional whoomf sounds from breaking into the airy layer of facets but figured as long as there's a good crust it would be very hard to trigger. Around 9000' the buried layers of crust had disappeared and the surface crust was getting thinner with about 1ft of loose faceted snow underneath so we decided going higher was unwise. Difficult snowpack for decision making! It rode like a firm edgeable crust, smooth and fun but the next line over with sheltered pockets of powder looked like danger and I think the layers we found would create an unstable base for whenever new snow arrives. Almost didnt share this but figured its worth putting out there as a yellow flag for when powder fever comes in strong. As im typing this im seeing rain below 8300' and heavy snow above. With the snowpack I saw last weekend this would be tricky because the snow could look solid when you step into the steeps and a few hundred feet up the stability could change drastically. Be safe my friends!

Quick report