March 12, 2011, Mellow Snoq

Usual I-90-Nordic-Windy-Ollalie-lower Silver Peak basin tour, with Duncan.  Snow is deep through Nordic pass: blue diamonds only about 6 feet above the snowline. Slightly firm surface sludge above wet, slurpee material with tons of treebomb and rain drip through there. Ollalie also deep with just occas. Xmas tree tips poking through: pretty fun.  Best snow was the highest but we turned around in lower SP basin due to stability concerns. Groomer gouges in Ollalie allowed for inspection of layering; I won't attempt a technical word but there were multiple obvious layers of concern which were easy to release after isolating a column. The patrol, using their winch etc. Friday afternoon, had brought down a very impressive slide on the N side of Radio Mtn. which ran way accross the Rockdale road.