January 31, 2004, Yodelin

Initially planned to ski Skyline Ridge but the Stevens parking lot was chaos, so we went a mile down the road to the empty tranquility of Yodelin.  This was my first time to Yodelin and I found the fall lines a bit funky (I'll have to study the map a bit more).  However the steeper tree runs up top were sublime.  About 8-12 inches of dry fresh over a stable rain crust made for easy turns.

Our initial NW aspect pit results on the ridge were scary.  The 8-12 inches of fresh were fine, but underneath the fresh was about 7 inches of  consolidated slab over a weak slide layer about 18-20 inches deep.  This weak layer at 18-20 inches sheared easily with just a gentle knee bounce doing a Reuschblock (spelling?) test.  So we opted out of the 35 degree open slope for the relative safety of the trees.  All things considered, the well spaced tree run with great powder was the best choice anyway.