Took a few laps in the lower angle corner pocket of East Bowl this morning. North winds along the ridges were bone chilling and moving snow in the early AM. Wind mostly died out after a few hours. It turned out to be a beautiful blue bird day in the mountains. Driving back into the foggy valley felt like going backwards in time to 2020. Aspects facing the sun were taking on some heat as we were leaving.

The snow structure on the lower west facing aspects of East Bowl is just downright gross. Every time I would weight my ski pole it would break through the decomposing slab and drop all the way to the ground. The snow surface is badly decomposing and has become very week. Up higher in East Bowl there is a slab 20CM below the surface that is quite a bit more dense and supportive.

I experienced the biggest collapse of the season on a 30-32 degree west/north west facing slope at about 10,000ft. When I looked up slope there was a crack 50ft above me that ran horizontally along the slope 100 feet wide. If that slope had been steeper it would have been an avalanche. A good reminder that there is still a very real possibility of triggering an avalanche.

That being said, the entire Silver Fork headwall was getting skied without signs of avalanches. Out of curiosity I dug a hasty pit below the Silver Fork headwall. There was a thick one finger slap about 50cm down from the surface resting on top of the very week November crust/facet layer. Not a set up that I would place a bet on, but I’m not an expert.

The likelihood of triggering a slide continues to decrease, but I think there is still a very real possibility of stepping on a land mine out there.