May 19, 2006, Iron Peak

Skied the NE facing bowl below Iron Peak.  The steeper part above about 6000 feet was nice - pretty firm base with an inch or two soft on top.  Starting to get suncupped, though.  The lower gradient slopes below about 5800 feet were pretty slow due to high water content.  Also skied the N facing slope of Mary (I'm unsure of the name.  The 6680' peak east of Iron).  From the summit to about 5600 feet was very nice, a little debris in the trees lower down.  Saw no sign of instability at either location.  In summary, despite the recent very warm weather and lack of night refreezing, the skiing on N and NE slopes was worth the walk. The snow is going very fast though. I was at Earl and Navaho on the 10th and the difference in coverage is dramatic.  From Mary I could see that the west face of Earl is getting thin.  The gully run down  the W side that we did last week is melted out in at least one place and quite thin in others. Also, all the S facing runs on the Stuart Range are melted out beyond practicality (at least for my walk to ski ratio tolerance).