North of Raft Mtn

Good conditions north of Raft Mountain. We stayed mostly within the trees and overall stability was fairly good. A shooting crack about 3' long was noticed on a switchback. There was also some occasional settling while skinning, but no big whumphs. The day was calm with little wind, socked in lower, clouds & sun higher up. Some wind effect was noted on the ridge, but nothing substantial. We dug a pit on the ridge and things seemed fairly stable; since it was the first day of the season we kept things pretty tame.The new snow felt fairly solid and we skied some 35 degrees slope below treeline with no issues. I cut a convexity and 2' wide slab came off, but stopped straight away. Snow coverage was good up high and still okay down below.

We dug a pit on the ridge to get a look at the snow. 120cm HS; Density change at 75cm from fist to 4 fingers, crust with surface hoar at 65cm, crust at 30cm with facets below. Surface hoar layer fracture at ECT8, propagation at ECT26 with a Q2 resistant break.