Hi Folks,

I am not able to file an observation on the website right now; the page won't load.

The hard windslab is certainly a concern, as you well know; but nothing was moving today, thankfully. I did a cut similar to what I have done every day since Mt Allen tram opened, within 20 yards of the boundary rope, west of the Mt Allen tram top platform.

9300 feet down to 9000 feet, no cracking or settling; slide for life potential though on very hard dense windslab, until you get a couple hundred feet below the ridge.

Went out the No Name gate; went to the Wizard rock and cut that test slope, at 8790'; this is good powder in the trees (this test slope has been stable every day the past 5 days).

Getting out Sloth ridge is a bit of a chore, but goes well. Windscoured old tracks; no new slab on the east exposures. The place I want to get off the ridge, to the north, and get into the trees, is convex hard windslab, I don't like the convex rollover of this area. One factor in our favor is that I have cut this exact area every day for the past 4 days. I like to get some high speed cuts on this area when its powder, because I know someone will get on it sooner or later; its right next to some of the safest tours you can do out there.

So I sideslip straight down to a tree with no issues, continue tree to tree with no issues. The hard windslab extends for a couple hundred vertical feet; more than I expected, 8100 to 7900'. The second of our group follows with no issues. The 3rd reports a crack up high, but no other movement. Moving one at a time, tree to tree, we get down to the powder in the trees, but getting off that ridge was a little tense. In hindsight, I think that hard windslab is safer in thicker trees, because the slab is kinda locked in to each tree. So next time I'll pick a more densely treed route off of that ridge.

The trees below 7900' in this area (a couple hundred feet below the ridge) are quality, knee to thigh deep.

I end up around 7200', and Vert snowshoe back up to 7500 to gain a pass to get back to the Snowbasin base. More styrofoam windslab within 100 feet of the ridge, West facing; if I move a bit north into trees its still powder; picking a careful line tree to tree, and lower angle where possible, works out well. Plenty of localized cracking (within a few feet of the snowshoe placements), mostly 2 to 5 inches deep, seemed manageable, or avoidable, to me. I gained the ridge, and went up the ridge for a ways, areas with good rock handholds, and plenty of little test slopes, and nothing slid, just cracking, and some super hard areas on the ridge I could barely get a toe into, with ski mountaineering boots. Cutting the next bowl over, with speed, 7600' NE facing, nothing moving. I didn't notice cracks there, it seemed very hard, mostly scoured with small areas of deposition too; stubborn thick windslab.

Photos: hard windslab while Vert snowshoeing, when getting within a couple hundred feet of the ridge on a West facing slope.

On the ridge, a crack near a cornice, but the cornice didn't move.

The snow is great all the way down to 6300'. If you can find lower elevation trees that aren't too thick, that is a good place to be, especially if you are ok with tight trees, which seem to be everywhere :-).

Cheers,