March 2, 2003, Crystal Backcountry

We started off in very sunny conditions (which made the hike up under chair #4 rather grueling).  As the afternoon progressed the clouds moved in, visibility became poor, and it began to snow.  

Well, after 1 week of no snow.  We were pleasantly surprised to find about 6" of untracked powder on a 35 degree slope.  Especially after the crusty report from Bullion yesterday.

We did a shovel shear test and it seemed very solid (10 wrist, 10 elbow, 10 shoulder, 6 really hard) before it sheared about 18" down.  Clean shear.   We then did something similar to a rutschblock, but with snowshoes and it took 6 big jumps to get it to go....and it sheared cleanly at about the same depth.

We saw no avy activity.  Had a very pleasant day yo-yo-ing on the hillside.   But what a fun day!  Riding the groomed run back to the car was not so much fun after that nice soft, powder feeling.