Truda-Hermit Col

Bluebird day at the Hermit today. On the way up, it was warm and sunny. Surface snow was getting moist, but not wet in the AM. Several loose drys running roughly 100m from the Grizzly Shoulder E cliffs. The alpine temps around -10C have preserved the snow quality on solar aspects, although a little wind-affected in places. We climbed to the Truda-Hermit Col, digging a pit on a similar slope beforehand. Got easy and medium SP and SC releases during CT on the top 30cm of fist hardness snow. Surprisingly, a repeated hard SP release down 65cm on a DF and FC mix. Overall, the upper snowpack is mostly F to P with a 4F wind slab buried 80cm down. HS between 290-310cm on the Tupper Glacier around 2700m. Foot penetration of 60-80cm. . On the way down, we noticed a couple of loose drys released from skiers crossing under the Tupper west ridge. Good wind-affected powder in the alpine. A sun crust has refrozen on solar aspects. Shaded areas are good to go. Deep powder at TL and below. No Na activity was observed.