January 16, 2006, Bullion Basin

After flailing around on Skyline ridge on Sunday, Preston and I decided to take MLK day off to try again for some powder turns at a place we've already checked out, Bullion Basin.  We tried to leave Seattle early because of the predicted increase in avy danger later in the day, but some how we didn't leave Crystal Mountain's base area until 9:30.  We left the groomed road at 4800 ft and headed up the trail.  We were planning on a short tour to check out the North facing slope at the south end of the basin, but before we got there we found a really nice looking SW facing slope (lots of snow, just enough trees).  This slope seemed more appealing than the North aspect that was our goal since the wind had been coming from the south for several hours.  We quickly made the decision to skin up this aspect.  At around 5600 ft, we dug a pit where the slope measured 35 degrees.  We found about 3.5-4 ft of snow, fist at the top to 4 fingers at the bottom, sitting on top of the recent crust.  While isolating the back wall of a column, a 1-1.5 ft block sprung forward.  After continuing to cut the column with one ski and awkwardly balancing on the other ski, another block released at about 2-2.5 ft, probably while I pulled slightly forward on my ski to keep my balance.  Although these blocks of snow seemed very light and relatively unconsolidated, it was a little too much movement for my Texas nerves (don't worry, I would have an impeach Bush sign in my yard if I thought it would make a difference), so we decided to ride down to the trees.  We put our splits back together, and I let Preston go first, again...  After I rode down, I agreed, the snow seemed really stable.  So we skinned back up, this time a little farther.  Since Preston has started referring to himself as the "slope stability tester", I decided I'd better go first for a change.  We had another great run down, although the snow seemed a little heavier.  While the first run provided legitimate face shots, the second run was knee to chest high.  By this time it was 1:30 and the trees started dropping snow bombs, so we decided to head out before the conditions changed further.  Down lower the snow was heavier and more choppy from the previous day's use, but still lots of fun.    All in all a GREAT powder day with minimal wallowing.  We arrived at the parking lot at 2:15 with big smiles to the sound of bombs going off at the ski area.