Quick report
Our party toured up the Cog with the objective of getting eyes on Great Gulf and skiing some lines based on the conditions we found. We arrived at the top of Airplane Gully at 1115 and found the start zone to be quite full and corniced. We also identified several pockets of wind slab in the upper sections of Airplane. A hand shear test on one of the pockets above the cornice resulted in a cohesive 10cm thick 1F slab that popped out very easily with a smooth clean interface from the underlying crust. We also observed active snow transport on strong winds from the NW. After some discussion, our team decided that a safe descent of Airplane would require a very careful eye to identify the reactive pockets, and discipline to give them a wide berth. Despite seeing a single set of tracks down the center of the gully, we decided the risk was not worth the reward so we agreed to head to the SE snowfields, where we found untracked fresh snow, a softening and easily skiable crust, and great turns. Our observations aligned with the forecast, where we found a largely stable stable snowpack with small isolated pockets of wind slabs in very specific features.