March 27, 2017, Kendall Trees

Fascinating day up at Kendall Trees on Monday. Nick and I got a pretty casual start and started our first run - from the top of the trees themselves - around 11:30. Things were much lighter than expected, and way lighter than the slush that fell down below. Our pit revealed a couple storm slab weaknesses at around 10 and 20 cm down, in addition to a nasty rain crust about 45 cm deep. Even though nothing was moving, we decided to stick to our conservative plan of tree laps.

For lap two, we ventured across a small, low angle open slope beneath the lager open face. Right after we started skiing down, the first big sun break opened up and things started moving! One point release up high after another slid slowly and grew, running on just the 10cm layer, but gathering plenty of snow.

The slides gathered exactly where you'd expect, and ran just about as far as you'd expect - right down to our skin track and one even went a little into the woods.

Had the sun been blasting before, would we have skinned over there? Hell no. After seeing this, we continued lapping trees and each time saw more and more slides at the top until the entire open face had run. It was interesting, educational, and eye-opening to see exactly how the slides behaved. I also think good planning and communication throughout the day helped us stay safe.

As for the trees? The first two laps of 600' were good, but they got progressively worse with tree bombs eventually covering everything. The exit was even worse in the rain. If you're looking to head up to that zone anytime soon - wait for more snow or don't waste your time. #prayforcorn