We began our tour at the Neff's Canyon trailhead under cloudy (OVC) skies, warm temperatures (~30°F), and light snow (S-1). Whipple couloir was the goal for the day. We planned to approach the top of the couloir via Thomas Fork, check out conditions, and ski the line if we felt comfortable with the risk. Our exit strategy was to either ascend an adjacent couloir back to Thomas Fork or to ski out into BCC. Our main concern was wind slab at the couloir entrance along with potential storm slab issues.

Our hand pits in Thomas Fork on N/NW aspects yielded mixed results. Some failed upon isolation (Hand-Easy) while others had no result. This variation was likely due to how well the new snow bonded to the underlying crusts. Graupel was present in the new snow at all elevation bands. Some areas had significantly more graupel than others (more discussion on that below).

We observed several small (D1) slides and sluffs from the previous day along the steep, northeast face just north of Triangle Peak/Hobbs Couloir. This is also in line with other recent avalanche reports in this zone today (see Seamus Dolan's Memorial 5 report https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/95052).

We ascended the ramp leading to Pole Plant and turned towards Whipple. At this time, snow rates increased for a couple hours (S1) with graupel mixed with light stellars. The top of Whipple Couloir showed signs of wind loading. We dug a test pit in some wind drifted snow near the entrance of the couloir. The height of snow (HS) was 300 cms and was right side up. There were two crusts present at 235 and 197 (dust layer). Our extended column test fractured in the new snow, but no propagation (ECTN12 @ 275). Additional loading steps yielded similar results (ECTN28 @ 257). We conducted a propagation saw test to see if there was any reactivity right under the melt freeze crust at 233cm - PST 98/100 (END). Our stubborn test results and observations for the day (no new naturals) seemed to indicate that the new snow was set up well for us to drop Whipple.

Whipple skied extremely well - there was a party who skied it before us (thank you for the skin track out!) and the snow felt bomber on the way down. We chose to ascend back out via an adjacent couloir. This south facing couloir had a small soft slab slide (D1) in the new snow likely triggered by the skiers ahead of us. (see photo). A quick hand pit showed this failed on a significant (5-10cm deep) graupel layer.

Our ski out of Thomas Fork was stellar - great riding was found on most aspects until about 7500' when the warm temps turned the snow into mashed potatoes. We did deal with some minor sluffing on a steep 40-45° NW facing aspect at around 8500', but it was manageable.

All in all it was a great day out. The avalanche in Memorial 5 certainly has us reassessing our observations for the day. Generally, we thought the snow was stable on the aspects we skied (S, NW, and N) with manageable soft slab issues.