January 28, Bullion Basin

Hey there---my first trip report.  Chad and I joined the skin-commuters about 9 AM and went into the bottom of the basin.  Avy was obviously a concern: pronounced crust from last Tue. evident when I pushed a pole in a bit over 12".  some others skinned high on the left/SW face, called East Peak I think?  Too scary for us.  We hooked up with Bruce and Randy to take turns breaking.Lots of compliments from the back 3 kept the leader gasping away.  
Randy dug a pit on thre lower R of the east Peak slope and found just what we felt:  over a foot of fresh, more soft, and then a crust and maybe a bit of surface hoar?  so we stayed away from the most open slopes and