May 12, 2001, Hawkins, Salmon La Sac backcountry

We had planned on trying Snowking today, but the forecast sent us to the East side, seeking corn. The FS road was clear all the way to the Hawkins spur. We booted to 4700' which is typical for this time of year. The ridge had less snow than usual, but coverage was continuous. At about 6000' we left the ridge and traversed the W face to the summit. Filtered sunshine and only high clouds made for good views (Snowking likely would have worked.) When we started the 1200' W facing run the first skier's third turn triggered a large (40'x800'x1') slide releasing to the ground. We then looked at the E bowl, but decided it was riskier (steeper at the entry with large cornices), and so we cautiously skied the W face to exit. Several hundred vf below the summit the angle lessened and the snow hardened so we completed the W face run without any more slide action. We climbed to our entry point on the W face and did an extra run down the approach ridge. This was the best snow! of the day, but it was not corn. At least it wasn't unstable mush. Skied to 4500' on the exit. Lots of exercise (5400' vf), but overall poor skiing. Where's the corn?

The Usual Suspects