Lizard

After the boot pack in at about 2.3km, the snow was crusty then warmed up in the sun. Patches of good snow was to be found in non sun effected areas.

Skinned to the hut no further, high avalanche risk. Heard massive avalanche and saw plenty of avalanche evidence above the hut. Cornice ready to go. Hot two days, crusty ski down.

Spent the weekend out at Thunder Meadows hut, access and egress was good. Used the xc trails from Island lake and was able to ski the majority of the way in and out. The creek crossing into cabin bowl is swollen, will require a boots off maneuver. Friday and Saturday held good skiing, cold snow on polars and warming on solars. No signs of instability were observed on friday and saturday. Sunday and Monday had increasingly weak refreeze overnight and hot wet skiing everywhere. We were able to ski steep alpine terrain on Saturday, and then stepped back from terrain as the warming increased. We witnessed a widespread natural cycle of wet loose and some cornice fall to size 1.5. By Sunday many glide cracks were growing in the area, we witnesses no glide releases. Monday afternoon while exiting we began to make wet slab avalanches while navigating thru steep terrain at the bottom of orca bowl and had one wet slab Sa at size 2. The rider was able to ski out of the avalanche. Below 1500m the Lizard range is below threshold. Above 1500m coverage increases fast and is over 3 m of snow at the cabin. The snowpack continues to be isothermal up to ridgetop and will need a good refreeze before the corn harvest begins! The cabin is in good shape, well buried and the pressure of the snow has moved the door slightly out of alignment. Bring mouse traps if you are heading up! The bathroom has snow/ice plugged into the puck board poop slider but hopefully that clears up with warming temps!

We skinned up the Sunnyside trees from tunnel creek hut at 8am and observed a large wet loose debris slide that seemed to come from a single point potentially dropped off a tree. We approached the ridge and looked into mercury basin which had further evidence of natural wet loose debris and big pin wheel debris. The snow felt heavy and wet in sun affected areas which turned to a crust layer when out of the sun. The softest snow was found directly under the trees. We dug a pit on the west facing slope of tunnel ridge which faced into mercury bowl. The snow pack depth was 250cm at this point. The snowpack clearly showed the heavy wet recent storm slab snow of 50cm sitting on a ice hard pack for the lower section of the snow pack. The interface between the two sections had a layer of groupal polystyrene ball type snow. We performed two propagation tests, the first showed no weak layer instability.this was performed across the full 90cm wide column. The second was performed on a smaller isolated column. This test showed the interface between the new storm snow and the hardback below failed at around 28 CP (One of first pits tests I've witnessed, but I understand this to be 10 with wrist,10 with forearm and 8 with shoulders). The slope was around 25-30deg, 1900m elevation. We skied in the trees of mercury basin and saw no new avalanches but often large pin wheels or heavy slabs of snowpack break off. The skiing was still very fun, great last hut trip to finish off my first season in the backcountry.

Snow felt stable and no signs of avalanches. As we approach higher up (maximum elevation 1500m) the snow began to feel a bit slabbier and would break in larger sections when skinning. Coverage was good with light snow from 1000m on the gorbys trail.

Climbed White Pyramid and found edgeable crust basically the entire way. The river was frozen and supportive to skis, though the ice had opened considerably in the afternoon. Ski crampons were handy in places but not essential. Good boot packing conditions on the ridge and we found consistent 3m snowpack on the summit glacier. Broken sky felt pretty warm at times, but light to mod winds kept ridge top cool. Observed -2 C at summit at 1400, T10 -8C. We observed only one slough off the east facing headwall in the morning, but the cornices above are significant. Most of the paths along the west side of the creek appear to have slid in the past week. Cloud cover increased in PM reducing solar input. Skiing was mostly firm with chalky sections, hooky down towards the creek. Great views made the day.

Started the day with a supportive crust, transitioned to spring corn before going isothermal around 1:00 pm as we descended in elevation. Size 1 wet looses observed on steep, rocky, alpine + solar slopes. Observed from a distance but seemed to be a day or two old. No natural roller balls observed, some roller balls from us skiing down. Cloudy all day with sporadic wind, rain and snow. Hiked to about the second creek crossing (~2km), skinned up to the hut from there. Icy conditions on the road as you approach snowline, cleats would be nice to have for the walk up/ down!

Quality blue bird three sisters outing. Travel is challenging below 1400m with lots of dirt patches but supportive frozen crusts when we started (5:00am). We opted to walk the Proctor summer trail to 1400m when we put our skiis on. From there we enjoyed great ski crampon conditions all the way to the debris in the main couloir when we transitioned to boots. Very intense solar had us excited for the corn but not worried with our early start. We found some dry powder in the "toilet bowl" above the couloir (2400m, N). Great coverage and snow quality (for its exposure) on the ramp to the summit. Summit 9:30am, dry snow to the couloir where it transitioned to lovely corn and the debris had even softened nicely. We had some more corn descending from the meadows and hit the freezing level at ~1200m. We kept the skiis on for most of the way out with minimal "dry skiing".

Went out for a little adventure to Ridge 2000 from the ski resort today. The day was off to a rough start skiing down Cedar Bowl getting hammered with a snow rain mix…snain, and slapped our skins on in the pouring snain at the haul back while we contemplated our choices in adventure. Just as we started skinning we experienced some thunder snow, and hoped that the convective cell would pass quickly. It did. By time we made it to the bottom of Fish Bowl it was getting sunny and the adventure was looking more promising. We crossed the bottom of the bowl as we gawked up at the sunlight ridge with slightly clenched sphincters noticing old wet loose avalanches and a couple large glide cracks. We climbed up the ridge on 5-10cm of wet shmoopy snow and as we climbed the wind got stronger and stronger. We noticed that the previously unfrozen surface snow was beginning to form a cream brulé crust on anything but the most solar aspects. As we neared the top of the ridge I was slowly getting strangled by my own jacket as my hood parachuted backwards with my face to the wind which was honking from the NW. Deciding that we didn’t want to get blown into the Cement Chutes, we decided to call it there and made a plan to descend the ridge avoiding any terrain below the glide cracks we observed earlier. We had great visibility of the terrain below us and could confirm that no other parties were around so we decided to shmoopalanche the slope and ski the bed surface which produced reactive wet loose and provided really great skiing on the bed surface. As we descended we noticed that the snow became less reactive and a very interesting snow surface (see pic). As we exited fish bowl back to the resort we observed new wet loose avalanches around the glide crack and that the glide crack itself was noticeably larger than earlier. Overall it was a great adventure packed with all kinds of weather from thunder snow to sun and honking wind. **we also observed several trees failing in the wind today especially in the BTL, heads up hockey out there.

The joke was on us today.. We were hopeful that north facing terrain was still holding dry snow after a couple sunny days. We were wrong. We encountered breakable crust on all aspects until we got on lower angle terrain below 1600 m where the crust was supportive to skis. No avalanche concerns where we skied today. Twisting a knee in the breakable crust was the main hazard. The good news..It's snowing in town! Pro tip: Low angle, open, smooth terrain makes for the best skiing when conditions are dust on crust ;)

The South Rockies team took a visit to the newest Grizzly Basin Outfitters cabin in the Whimster creek drainage today! Access was ok, new snow down low made a difference in keeping the machines cool. Apart from one minor creek crossing, the road is snow or ice the whole way to the cabin! We ventured above the cabin on skis up to a treed ridgeline at 1800m. Travel conditions are reasonable in this area. There is 10 cm of new snow on the most recent crust, which is supportive to skis. Within the 10 cm of new snow there is a thin breakable crust that was not a factor while skinning, but noticeable on the ski down a treed north facing slope. Surface snow on the south aspect was collecting some solar radiation with patches of sunlight and mostly cloudy skies, but not enough to warm the surface snow. Air temperature at 1800 m was -2.5 and winds were light from the south. Snowpack depth at 1800 m was between 170-190 cm. We observed lots of recent cornice growth in the McDermott and First Peak area. And one old natural size 2.5 persistent slab avalanche, likely during last weeks rain event, on the steep and rocky North face of McDermott Peak. A group skiing in this area the past week reported some signs of instability on north facing terrain in the treeline/alpine. If you have been out in the hills recently or plan on getting out this weekend, please consider submitting your observations to the MIN!

Good day skiing some corn up mt. Proctor. Noticed several older avalanches, Glide cracks and cornices around. The slopes we stuck to warmed throughout the day resulting in very nice skiing above 1700m.

Skied the bowl below Grizzly Peak just outside of Fernie resort boundaries. Had to hike in the first 2km as the dense trees were not skinnable due to lack of snow. As we gained elevation we were able to skin up through the trees. The snow was very wet and occasionally the poles would push right through. Shaded areas had a firm MF crust, ski crampons were required to continue climbing. The ski down was heavily wind affected with sastrugi and had a firm icy crust. Lots of avalanche debris was found throughout the bowl from last weeks warm weather. We saw what appeared to be a glide crack that formed on a NE aspect that we did not see in the morning.

Bullet Proof Crust when we got up in the morning, that slowly turned to fun snow by 11:30 AM in the sunnier spots. Lots of Loose Wet sluff around from the rain. Tree Skiing was variable, crusty, wet, heavy and everything in between. Stability seemed decent, and Nothing had slid From Planetary East Face to Venus yet as of Sunday

Incredible surprise powder weekend in Fernie, and we made the most of it by going into Mongolia Bowl on Sunday. Observing the avalanche Canada report, one of the key things to watch out for was sun-effective snow on all aspects aside from North. We reached the top of Mongolia from Mammoth Drops around 12 pm and noticed a significant change in temperature from shade to sun. When we got to the top, we could see balls of rolling snow fall down the snow, and you could tell that the sun was just starting to have an effect on the snowpack. We quickly made our way to the bottom of Mongolia Bowl through the lookers right side, with the face being more supported and a bit more open, ready to go up the second ridge. We stuck to shaded areas for the rest of the walk. Riding from the second ridge back down into the main Mongolia Bowl was awesome, bottomless powder with open trees. It was a wicked run. The sun hadn’t seemed to play any effect on the side of the slope. We walked back up to Mongolia Ridge and then skied the open face into mammoth droppings, one of the best runs of the season so far.

THE day to be out in the lizard range. Below 1500m yet another breakable temperature crust exists in the upper 15 cm of HST. Above 1500m there is 40-60cm of new snow above the march 10 crust. The mar 10 crust is 5-10cm thick and supportive up to ridgetop. We observed several recent Na storm slabs up to sz 1 from steep rocky features. And a few Na dry loose from headwalls this am with solar input and active wind loading. Air temperature rose steadily thru the day and solar slopes saw strong input from the sun. We didn’t notice any significant warming of the snow surface due to steady light wind. Ridetop winds increased to moderate W-SW in the pm. Snow transport increased to moderate at 11am and by 2pm was holding snow in turbulent suspension under headwall features. We skied open trees and supported alpine slopes up to 40° on NW and NE aspects below 1950m and had a great day out in the sunshine!

Early in, early out. Found some unreal mellow pow off the proctor ridge and down to fairy creek. Surprisingly little wind effect/slabbing on the surface. New snow was bonding poorly to the various crust (rain/sun/melt freeze) and better to the wind affected surfaces. We opted to start early in the cold and avoid any surface wetness with the high solar.

Skied 3.14159 great laps of Mongolia. ~30cm new snow made for enjoyable skiing on low angle slopes, steeper slopes sluffed readily down to the crust below. When initially climbing up the NW-facing trees above Mammoth Droppings, popped a few small wind pockets ~10-15cm deep, 2-3m wide. No similar activity observed when skiing down into Mongolia (S-SE slopes), or during the subsequent climb from Mongolia back to the col.

After being turned around due to a highway closure, we pivoted to McDermott basin. We staged at the cat shed and access was breezy up to the cabin where we switched to human powered travel. We climbed up to the notch, then over to hang ten. We dug a profile at 2000 m on a wind loaded NW aspect. The recent storm snow did not produce any results in tests, which was great to see. However, we were still able to produce consistent results on the January persistent slab layer, which was buried down 85 cm (ECTP28 on well preserved large SH). The day was mainly cloudy, wind was light from the west. It was snowing very lightly when we began our decent around 14:00. Skiing was decent where you couldn’t feel the crust below the storm. We noted several old natural storm slab avalanches, predominately on N-E aspects in steep rocky terrain, likely occurring during the storm or soon after.

Today we went for a ski up at Cold Feet near the 3 Sisters. Our goal was to find out what happened to the snowpack during this weekends warm and stormy weather, and once again test our Persistent Slab problem in this region. Access from Hartley staging is good right from the parking lot, and enough dust on the crust to keep the sleds cool! Below 1900m the crust from this weekend is 10-15 cm thick and supportive to skis and snowmobiles. There was 10 cm of new snow on top this morning, and more snow thru the day added up to 20 cm on top this afternoon! Winds were light from the SW at ridgetop today. The surface snow is low density and is not exhibiting any slab properties, but sloughing in steep terrain is entraining snow and running long distances on the crust. Above 1900m the crust dwindles to 3-5 cm thick and is not supportive to skis. We dug on a South aspect at 2100m and were able to produce propagating results on the Jan 26 Persistent Weak Layer (PWL). ECTP 28 down 85 cm. On a North aspect at 2100m we were not able to produce propagating results on the Jan 26 PWL, or the Feb 7 PWL. We had ECTN 22, and CTM 12 SP down 40 cm on the Feb 7 PWL. We were only able to identify preserved Surface Hoar within the Feb 7 PWL on North aspects, and within the Jan 26 PWL on South aspects. Where the crust is thin and breakable, triggering a large persistent slab avalanche is still a concern. We are being extra cautious about slopes with likely trigger points such as buried rocks/logs, thin to thick areas, and steep slopes/convexities. The persistent slab is transitioning to a low probability/high consequence problem, and will continue to change with additional load. Choosing low angle terrain not only avoids this avalanche problem, it also provides better ski quality in the "dust on crust" conditions that exist currently!

The South Rockies team enacted a backup plan and went for a tour up the Mercury Basin today. We intended on going up the Little Sand area, but a lack of snow down low made it impassable for our machines. It was a warm day and mostly sunny with a few convective squalls. The access to Mercury/Mcdermott is good from the cat shed. Isothermic snow down low kept the machines cool on the trail. Up past the Mercury cabin the warming has had a significant impact on the ski quality, breakable crust and ski pen of 10-30 cm in moist snow all the way to 1800m. We dug on an east and west aspect at 1800m. Height of snow is between 260-300 cm. The persistent weak layer is down 75cm and still has preserved surface hoar up to 15mm on a supportive crust. We had CTH24, ECTX, RB6 WB, and PST 35/100 end on this layer. We observed no signs of avalanche activity. Although this layer is not giving obvious red flags while travelling on skis/snowmobile, the structure for large avalanches still exists, and is still able to be triggered by humans. Shallow areas, buried rocks/trees, and thin to thick areas are all likely places to trigger this problem. In this area it is a low probability, high consequence problem, and we avoided skiing in avalanche terrain today.

Stayed at Whimster cabin for three nights and found generally crusty skiing, with dry snow on true north aspects until rain and warmer temps on the 4th. ECTP 16 down 52 on well preserved 6-10mm surface hoar at 2100m and ECTN 7 down 12 on both west and northeast aspects kept us mostly to mellow and treed terrain. ECTX, moist snow to ground with a few crust/ice lense/ very degraded surface hoar layers found at 1850m in south facing open burned trees. A refreeze occurred down to 1750m overnight on the 4th before 1cm new snow at ridge top and then light rain throughout the morning. Below that were dense and wet conditions with small wet loose realeases or massive pinwheels. One big whumph and 30m shooting crack at ridge top around 1800m.

Skied into Thunder Meadows on March 2nd, out on the 3rd. N aspects held a supportive crust with dry 5-10cm on top. No whoomphing or cracking. Obvious wind effect noted in windward areas and fist snow in the lees made for variable but mostly good skiing. S aspects were heavy and wet, noted around 11am both days, with a weak refreeze overnight. Ski pen 15cm into moist snow through the large cedar forests on exit made for heavy turns. Several size 1 wet loose avalanches witnessed along the SE chutes in Cabin Bowl in the afternoon of March 2nd. The NW side of Cabin appeared loaded with only one older size 1 slab noted (in pics) and nothing released recently. We avoided these steeper, connected slopes. Pit dug near the hut on the N slope. Buried surface hoar layer down 95cms overlies a melt freeze crust. Stubborn to trigger but would be capable of producing very large avalanches if triggered.

Two quick snowpack pits were dug in simple lower angle terrain in open treed area, at the foot of the planetary ridge area. Entire area was very wind affected with a continuous wind crust on most terrain travelled (skis). Wind direction seems to be consistently ESE through the basin. West slope pit 10:30 am 85 cm deep 8 cm wind skin 39cm consolidated Soft snow 2cm sun crust 15cm consolidated firm snow 13cm crust Compression tests: no signs of collapse North slope pit 11:23 am 83cm deep 5cm wind skin 47 cm consolidated snow 1cm sun crust 15cm consolidated snow 5cm buried surface hoar Compression tests: Sudden collapse at first shoulder tap, non planar, at first crust (52cm depth) PST: failure halfway through the block

CT 11 SC, on 6mm SH sitting on a (0.5 to 1cm thick, P- hard) crust down 72cm from the surface. Observed 1F hard small (1mm) facets below the decomposing crust- down 72cm from surface or at 198cm of HS 270cm. Observed same mod force result CT SC twice, 2 CTs, at this location in sheltered treed opening near ridgetop.

Toured inner/outer Mongolia. Warm conditions and strong sun had it feeling like spring. Observed several point releases (no obvious crowns) appeared to be triggered by solar input on Mammoth Head / Mongolia headwall. No other signs of instability while breaking trail or descending.

1550m elevation N Aspect -2 degrees, 20-30km wind, cloudy with light flurries Just above Heartley Lk 150cm snow depth / 50cm wind slab / Persistent Slab 30cm above surface All active problems (Wind Slab / Persistent slab) identified Persistent slab at 30cm above surface, with 70cm storm snow on top. Then another crust with 50cm extremely reactive wind slap on top. Massive whoomphing on north facing slopes and pin wheels on south facing slopes. No result on shovel compression test. But extremely reactive when stepped on/ jumped on top of slap. Almost immediate results with thick uniformed slab sliding on crust. Easily slid well pushed with shovel. Sketchy out there. Stayed to extremely mellow terrain.

Used Caution as we noticed plenty of fresh movement on the way in. Used good travel habits to check out a mellow area to play in. Another group on the ridge above triggered a size 2-3 avalanche on a slope shortly after we passed.

Great skiing in Hilda's today. No signs of instability, but still rode conservatively, taking a ridgeline down with less exposure.

Avoided solar crusts, beyond awesome absolutely provided the goods. No signs of instability, creek was sporty but not unreasonable.

We had an awesome day riding mellow trees on a West aspect starting with a short slope and moving to longer ones. On our third run, towards the bottom of the slope, the snow shifted under the weight of a rider and a crack appeared but didn't slide. On the top of the ridge where the sun was most intense it was significantly warming the snow (slushy snow) but it didn't affect the snow on the slope itself.

Beauty cold smoke little sand day! Still lots of signs of instability out there. Saw a size 1.5-2 natural slab avalanche that occurred at some point in the afternoon. It released on a steep openly treed north facing slope. No photo of this one unfortunately. We remote triggered a slab avalanche on a short steep convex roll from about 70m away. Crown depth was about 80-90cm. Sledder rode into a meadow below and adjacent to the slope and triggered the slide.

Great skiing in Mongolia!! Solar slopes have a supportive crust under the 40-50cm of new snow. Polar slopes have no crust under the new and feel bottomless!! Trail breaking was thigh deep and we put in a skin track avoiding all overhead we could and lapped that for the day. Widespread natural cycle of dry loose and storm slab occurred today. Continual sluffing from the headwalls cleaned out the entire wind affected fans with numerous pockets of size 1.5-2 storm slabs. Steep TL features also numerous natural dry loose and storm slab up to size 1.5. While skiing we triggered numerous touchy pockets 40-50cm deep on small convex rolls and steep slopes up to size 1. We observed sympathetic and remote triggers while skiing polar slopes between 1700-1900m. We used all our best travel practices today, chose low angle sheltered skiing, and were mindful of our overhead approaching and exiting the zone. The skiing was epic!!

Went for a walk up towards Trespass Ridge. Remote triggered multiple road-side storm slabs up to size 1. Observed many natural storm slab pockets releasing on the high sides of tree wells and basically every convex micro-feature in the mature forest. Anything above 30° was extremely reactive, either naturally or remote triggered. Lots of whumpfing and settlements.

Started reigning in our terrain choices before we even left the parking lot. Yesterday’s MIN from Hilda’s (skier triggered Sz1.5) gave us a heads up of what to expect. Lots of whumpfing and shooting cracks breaking trail through the trees. Up to 60cm new storm snow. HS 225 at the ridge top around 2000m. Very unstable snowpack right now even though the storm snow has barely formed a slab due to its very low density. Hangfire on the fracture lines was releasing sudden planar. Ski quality is incredible, just make ultra conservative terrain choices

Skier accidental on NE aspect in open trees/small avy path. First skier attempted ski cut with no results, second skier crossed slope a bit lower and triggered slab on the persistent weak layer. Size 1.5, 30m wide x 40m long.

Spent the night at Tunnel hut. ~20cm fresh storm snow on Monday. Made for great uphill travel and skiing conditions. We rode Sunny Side. Storm snow was well supported on south aspects by a solar crust. Decided to dig a pit on the north aspect of tunnel ridge. ~1900m, N, 35°, HS 320cm, CTM15 propagated 20cm down, soft slab/non-cohesive, then CTM17 propagated again on the Jan 26 PWL, cohesive slab, clean fracture. PWL still reactive. Opted not to ride north aspect, and rode Slide Side where there was a supportive crust underneath the storm snow. Woke up Tuesday am to another 20cm storm snow. We chose the safest egress option and rode the skin track/gully back to the road and down to the parking lot. Super fun ski out with the fresh snow. Small crack/propogation on low angle terrain during ski out. Still very touchy conditions in consequential terrain. Happy with our choices to enjoy some excellent powder in conservative terrain!

-remote triggered avalanches -fractures -14in slab -on all aspects With this new snow in the past 48hrs, everything was sliding. We were in trees all day and caused multiple slides

Approximate 20cm of new snow on Feb. 14. Noticed whumpfing, shooting cracks and storm snow sliding on north and south facing aspects.

Had an awesome day in the Hilda’s/Blairs zone along with 2 other groups! Orca road access is good! A thin crust exists on the surface below 1200m from yesterday’s warm weather. Above 1200m to 1600m there is 30-40cm of new snow on a strong bridging crust. The HST from Valentine’s Day is unconsolidated DF and graupel that does not exhibit any slab properties. There was 5-10cm HN from today that entrained as reactive dry loose on steep features. Above 1600m on a polar aspect the crust begins to break down and becomes 15-20 cm of 4F RG over the Jan 26 PWL. At 1700m there is 60cm over the crust and an HS of 285cm! We observed no reactivity on the Feb 7 SH/FC. Solar aspects at 1700m had a thin zipper crust just beneath the surface. At the top of Hilda’s (1800m) another party triggered a size 1.5 Sa that ran on the Jan 26 PWL. Failed as the 4th rider on the slope crossed a steep convex feature. One involvement, no burials, no injuries. Occurred on a steep unsupported feature in a TL ridgetop Lee. We were able to ski steep trees and open slopes on solar and polar aspects below 1800m without any signs of instability by avoiding likely trigger points of steep unsupported slopes, convexities, and connected terrain. And it skied very well! It was snowing an average of S3 thru the day, and winds were calm all day. Bring your big skis, the extra float keeps ya off the crust!!

2 nights at Tunnel Hut. Friday night brought 10-15 cm of snow which was just about enough to cover the hard crust that had existed everywhere and made for nice riding on gentle slopes. We stuck to mellow treed runs around the hut and today rode Sunnyside and Home Run. The sun was strong around noon and Sunnyside was starting to get sun affected.

We were at the McDermott hut from Feb.10-Feb 13. We actually found some great skiing on predominately North facing aspects. We used ski crampons for ascent on south open aspects. 2 pits had similar results showing single column CT 12 sudden planar results on the January SH layer down 15-30cms. Extended column tests did not propagate. We completed a Rush block on 1 of these pits and had no failure. Our last pit on Feb 12th, again north facing showed single column CT 5 sudden planar again but this time we had results on the extended column test. ECT 8 and propagation 30 cms across. A skier than stepped above the pit and the entire top 30cms slide off. Theres good skiing out there but also isolated locations that are touchy as noted by the South Rockies Team. The moustaches will ride in McDermott again next year. Thanks again to Travis.

Good day in Mongolia/Outer Mongolia! Ski quality was great, especially on shaded slopes, 25+cm on a supportive crust. As the forecast cautioned, by noon the sun packed a punch, creating heavy, sticky snow on sunny slopes. At the top of the steeper south-facing slope dropping away from Mongolia (Outer Mongolia? Ron Jeremy... bowl...?), the first skier cut a sluff that quickly entrained moist snow up to ~size 1+ (unable to see the complete runout), running fast on the hard steep crust beneath. Skier was not caught. We opted to back-off and lap the north-facing slope returning to Mongolia. Also came across another wet-ish (moist?) loose on the exit skin track. The start location was unclear, but potentially skier triggered. Observed one natural release from sun-exposed rock on Mongolia headwall. No propagation/slab behaviour associated with any of the observed avalanche activity. Notable accumulation of graupel on the surface may be a concern with the next snowfall.

Wow. Soft snow is pretty sweet and no ski crampons, yes please! Went to harvest the goods on 2000. Lots of cracking while skinning and popped a small slap on a convexity while skiing. Dug a pit with mixed results, ECTX and CTM11 (RP) down 25. We noticed the snow stiffening anywhere it was exposed to wind. We did get some visibility early afternoon and did not see any naturals. Skiis were penetrating down to the crusts.

Observed Size 1 slides from the lift from ski patrol cuts. Grouple snow fall at times

Pretty icy skin/boot up to the hut. Softer snow on lower angle N facing slopes. Skied a mellow treed slope in between sunny and slide side from the hut.

Conditions were as expected and as forecast. Skinned up to snake ridge hut in cedar bowl. Some cornices up on the top of the headwall, some had been blown up/off prior to arrival leaving big chunks on the slopes. Wind was high and made conditions very wind affected. Crusty snow below the tree line. Snow became very icy below 1500m. Dug out a hole to see all layers as described in forecast. No hoarfrost could be found.

Sunny day. Skined up on the left past mammoth droppings and over the ridge into Mongolia. The riding on the sun facing slope of Mongolia had surprisingly good snow, with a 5-10cm soft snow layer, which increased in softness as we descended. Snow pack felt generally stable from a riding perspective. . Skinned up into the east side of the bowl for the first time in the shade. Snow started to show signs of fracturing as we skinned up, breaking at a 5inch or so layer.