Up to K country yesterday
Did the Commonweath loop, and was surprised once again with the strength of the Rockies snow pack. Up to 10 cm of mainly low densisity sits atop of a variety of crusts depending on aspect.The minor exception to this was along ridge top where winds had distributed small isolated soft slabs into the lee features. The crusts below the storm snow are variable in depth but consistly support skiing. They support so well that we found it often quicker in the alpine to boot hike than to try and fight to put a skin track in on the hard crust.Ski quality up high was great with dust on crust. Down in the trees it was survival.
Weather observations
Sky : broken
Wind : calm in AM / light with mod gusts in PM from the S
Temps : low -17 / high -15
HS : Varied greatly with treeline being on average 60cm , but in the alpine up to180+cm in lee features
precip : nil
Profile
7000' NE Asp 27degrees
HS 80cm
surface instabilites in the top 20-30cm from last couple of storms- below well settled pack
NO results with tests / be aware of buried pockets of wind slab in shallow features
Avalanche Obs : Surface sluffing in steep terrain
Stability
Alpine: fair
treeline :good
below treeline : good
Early season hazards exist at treeline and below. Be aware of rocks and stumps