February 5, 2006, Husume, Whistler

Not sure whether it qualifies as inbounds or out of bounds, perhaps Frontcountry instead of Backcountry? Skied HuSuMe onto the Blackcomb glacier.
Left the exit gate at 12:00, was at the bottom of the run at 13:00 after a nice stop in the sunshine at the top.
After the uphill (aprox 650 vf) over varied surface condition due to fierce winds the day before, de-skinned and skied the short (200 vf) run down to the track over to the backside of Husume. That short run was rather kind and soft, great for catching a little bit of air and fast turns in the pow. Watched a young guy get 35-40 ft of air and land the bomb crater on the run.
Was about the 10th set of tracks down Husume. Snow was thick powder, felt rather stable and had that "stiff feeling".

Observations: conditions were pretty variable, with little regard to exposure to prevailing wind. This leads me to believe that "pocket of instability" and "pockets of quality" are out and must be sought out. This came as a suprise as I expected there to be more consistancy in regards to snow conditions and the strength of the wind.
I spoke with an old pal who is a groomer on Whistler and he reported stiff slabs going with explosives at a max depth of 20 cm, again less that I would have expected with 120-140 km winds and 37 cm of new snow during the storm. Of course all is subject to change, particularly in light of the warming trend that is expected.  I was also suprised that the snow in Husume was so much better than the top of/entrance to Ruby bowl, though the aspects are similiar (not identical).