Feb 28, 2010, Del Campo powder, MLHW

Rich subtly tried to talk me out of this choice several times, but we were both happy at the end.  There were two other cars at the TH, but didn't see anybody all day.  We guessed they were heading to Vesper.  There was practically no snow until we reached the beginning of the main basin at 3600'.  At this elevation, there was more snow in June last year.  Fortunately, the snow depth increased rapidly, and we were soon skinning on 6" dense powder before the col at 5200'.  There were many recent big point releases on steep slopes around without much hints of strong wind.

Once around the corner from the col, it was a different world.  White alpine slopes under blue sky, and the snow was powdery in this north-east facing shade!  We saw a few old wind slab releases on steep convex slopes, and picked a way up avoiding steep rolls.  Rich felt there was way too much snow in the normally wind-scoured steep slope up to the notch on the summit ridge.  So we decided we had reached a high point of the day. 

Skiing was nice in settled powder, then ended on firm crust.  Hiking out on the main creek bed was treacherous; glad we had hiking boots!