January 13
Mill D north, West Desolation,
Powder Park, Squaretop(too bony for me), Reynolds, Spruces
Elevations, slope angles and aspects
7500-9800', angles over 35°, all aspects.
Snow conditions
Patches of bare ground on the lower trail, add a skiff to an inch of fresh above about 8k.
South facing was bare ground in many areas but, I was kicking the toe of my boot through several inches of ice on the backside of west deso just below the ridge.
Scouring and drifting along the ridges, punchy(Colorado term=soft above variable crust above facet)on off aspects.
Sheltered and shady provided settled, faceted pow.
Weather
Clear skies, light wind and moderate temperatures.
Avalanche activity
Ski cutting of the top of peak 9800, below the scouring, produced surface sluffing.
Narrow bands, spreading a little as they descended,
running on the dense(rain crust) old surface, leaving shallow debris piles.
Reynolds face
I saw a dribbler over on Reynolds so at the end of the day...
Two slides on the ene facing. Crown averaged 1-2 inches. Wind drifting of the recent snow, small facet weak layer above the crust.
Total snow depth at the crown was 8" or so.
Skiing the face,
hard crust which turned punchy on descent with soft snow lower in more sheltered.
Evaluation
Mostly stable snow with sluffing the instability. Could be a few more of those shallow drifts in the area.
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