Wing Ridge

Arrive at SCS at 930. Road was plowed Saturday and the parking lot was being plowed out when we arrived (Thanks plowman!). Very light snow and warm temp of 29 when we arrived. 2in/5cm new snow over a frozen rain crust at the start of the skin track. Traveled up to shelter ridge. At 7200 ft no evidence of rain, we believe it was snowing at this elevation even on Friday. On shelter ridge dug a hand pit. Found 7in/17cm new snow fist hard right side up snow, resting on 2.5in/6cm four finger hard wet dense wind slabbed snow. Directly below this layer we found fist hard snow that increased in density and cohesion as deep as our quick hand pit. This density change layer failed easily with hand sheer force, once above it and once below. To further confirm our results we put a kick turn in on an isolated 40 degree slope and it failed at this density change again with shooting cracks. Not a day for stepping out into avy terrain. Got to about 8k feet and enjoyed a few runs of some great low angle powder skiing on the ridge. There was no wind, even at our top elevation. It snowed the entire tour, and by the end of the day our exit run on bairds had enough snow that the upper 2/3 were great skiing without hitting the rain crust.

Quick report