February 21, 2004, stevens pass bc

completed the skyline ridge/tye peak circumnavigation on saturday with a couple of friends.  hiked up the front side, crossed over skyline lake, into the back bowls, and up the ridge to tye peak.

the south facing slopes were wind and sun affected crust.  we were aiming for some nice north facing shots.  skied off the top of tye peak to the north.  found soft snow but also kicked off a slide.  a 50' fracture line with a 12" crown released while skiing.  skied out of it and it was moving very slowly.  this was pretty indicative of the snowpack on these aspects, a cohesive wind slab over a weak layer 12" down.  additionally, the current surface is setting up for a weak layer come the next cycle.

so after that, we decided to skin around to the small lake above tye lake where we saw some other groups doing laps on amore reasonably sloped n-facing area.  we found nice soft, if a bit heavy, snow over there and did a couple laps before returning to the front side via an interesting ridge route through the cliffs.  the south facing slopes below the ridge were covered in debris that looks to have come off from cornices or deposition zones on the rocks and cliffs above.

the ski back to the car on the s-face was like ice skating, real survival skiing.  a good day for variety and the avy eyes.