April 15, 2017, Bullion Basin

We planned on heading up to Norse peak Saturday, but the snow looked pretty patchy near the bottom of the descent so we opted to head up to Bullion Basin instead. The sun was out and the climb up was beautiful! Cornices have grown massive along almost every ridge we could see.

We thought about skiing into Union creek drainage, but as soon as we made a turn into that south-facing slope, small loose wet slides started running really easily on a slick crust a few inches down. It was moving even on terrain that was barely 30 degrees, so we opted to head back up to Pt 6479 (above Blue Bell pass) and ski the north-facing slopes into Bullion Basin instead. There we got a few runs of really nice wintry powder!

Looking southwest:


Wet slides running on crust:


Turns made to skiers right and left of pt 6479!


On our way out we tried to squeeze in one more run up the west-facing slopes towards pt 6654 (north of Bullion Basin) but again more wet loose slides running really easily on slick crust, so we headed for the car instead.

Overall it was a beautiful day out with only one other person seen all day!