Feb 26, Herman's shoulder

Just a quick note on the Mt Baker snowpack.  The amount of snow received Monday was enough to give me stomach cramps this morning when I got up because I was a nervous about the potential for a large release.  So, we arrived early to give ourselves time to really have a careful look at things.  The plan was to tear the guts out of the south facing aspect of Herman's shoulder.  Several pits along the way showed a meter of well consolidated cold snow.  We did 6 laps to above tree line and triggered only surface sluff of maybe 4 inches on a couple of the steeper roll overs in the area.  At the end of the day the other two  riders hiked the shoulder and then rode out on the south eastern side of Herman.  We avoided that today but looking at their very nice line didn't see any skier triggered sluffs.  From where we were though it looked as if there was about a 3 ft. crown way up high on the SE side.  It was a little hard to tell.  It could have been a wind drift but...   Really, really great skiing conditions today and only 4 skiers out skiing that aspect.  The north side of table remains virtually untouched for Wednesday.  Although, we did talk to one skier who skied blind down blueberry for lack of any vis.    If you are planning to go its a good time.  Do your homework on anything north facing but it should be terrific.