Approached Raymond/Mill A basin via Butler fork with the intention of skiing something southerly off of Raymond Shoulder or Gobbler's. Cold start, low teens at trailhead at 6:30am with calm winds.

I was curious how much the wind was going to have impacted this mid-elevation area on the southerly aspects. The wind affect seemed to be limited to the first couple hundred feet off the ridges and was inconsistent and varied. There was very clear evidence of variable cross loading on south facing Gobbler's with a few natural sluffs that had come down overnight, and we opted to go up towards Raymond and ski some moderate east-southeast runs off the shoulder instead. We poked around and did a few hand pits on the way up; at least at these elevations, the snow seemed well bonded and right side up on top of the old sun crust. We stomped around on the way up and put in a good hard cut on our first run and continued to find snow that seemed well bonded all around, although we did stop and ski far short of the summit and most exposed terrain on both runs.

A few parties behind us went the other way and skied White snake and the adjacent areas off Gobbler's without incident, but did trigger some pretty large long running sluffs.

Skiing on the non-wind affected southerlies was superlative before the sun got to them, a nice dense spongy base capped with a little cold dust. On our exit down the southeast ridge of Circle All around 10:15, the snow was just starting to feel the sun on the lower half. Driving down the canyon the true southerlies were starting to go off, with some wet sluffs spilling onto the road around the main path off circle all.