Jan 25, 2009; Near Blewett Pass

Traveled primarily on north and east aspects from about 4,000-to-6,000 feet.  The Arctic front of Saturday night brought about a 1-inch snow dusting to Blewett Pass, along with temps in the single digits.  Crust underlying the dust was semi-breakable/crunchy on north aspects, but overall quite supportable on easterly aspects.  Huge surface hoar crystals (beneath the fresh snow dusting) seemed abundant in wind-sheltered areas.  Upward progress was slowed considerably at times while navigating spots of glare ice in the forest.  Needless to say, surface snow conditions on the approach didn€™t look too promising for fun turns.   After a bit of map consultation and scouting, we found our €œgem€:  about 3-to-4 inches of fresh wind-drifted blower powder on an open E-NE aspect starting near 6,000-ft.  Enjoyed astonishingly nice shallow powder turns for ~1,000 vertical feet to the valley floor (the crust underneath was generally smooth and very supportable; and surprisingly not very noticeable for the first several turns; a bit sluffy (though not slabby) on the steepish drop-in at the top of the slope).  A quick €œadventure ski€ back through the forest brought us to lower open slopes for some additional fun (though crustier) turns before returning to the highway.