Jan 24, 2010, Heather Ridge to Yodelin Place

Another fairly mellow tour with some newer BC tourers, and another patrol day in the Skykomish Ranger District.  We expected much larger crowds, given how many folks were out last weekend, but the colder temps and impending storm kept folks away?  Who knows -- regardless, we had to share the place only with a small Mountain Madness avy course (hi Harlan, nice to meet you).

Snow on the climb up was pretty crusty and wind-hammered, but after passing 4500 feet or so the crust disappeared and we found colder, drier powder than we had last Sunday.  Great skiing down to the valley, then milking our elevation to get more turns as we headed toward the highway.  Light breakable crust below about 4200, even on north facing slopes, but it was still very skiable.  I'm certainly not going to complain.

Plenty of snow to get out through the valley/road, but there's lots of debris that needs some new snow to cover it up.  Fortunately, it was cold and coming down hard when we left at two thirty.