Our objective was the Benson & Hedges couloir. We chose to approach from Cardiff and boot up the chute in order to evaluate the snowpack on our ascent. We liked this approach as it gave us multiple bail out options back down the apron and avoided any play with upper Days Fork, a repeat offender this season.

Everything true west facing stayed nice and cold despite sunny skies, with very light breakable crust as the compass turned S/SW.

At our first indication of instability at approx 8,700’, a hand shear test showed reactive, low energy storm slab approx 7” and 4 fingers hardness down to 1 finger of hardness before hitting a layer of grauple. The grauple sat on top of a thick crust.

At this point, we decided to continue up higher to the base of the couloir to perform a second test. We chose a protected shoulder with access to a wind loaded area along the south wall of the couloir at approx 9,100’. Here, the storm slab was more apparent, measuring 8-10” deep and still sitting on that layer of grauple. This time we used a shovel, digging about 18-24” down and performing a microcosm of an ECT which resulted in ECTN5 at the buried grauple. Based on the size of our “pit” - I would consider this more of a collapse than a fracture.

Since we had yet to breach the barrel of the gun itself, we chose to continue booting up the couloir to reassess a third time - this time in an area more true to our intended ski line. This test was quick and conclusive. At 9,600’, the protected snow was light and fluffy. Deeper (10-12”) and more blower than the snow observed below 9,000’. However, this snow sat on grauple which sat on crust that was supported entirely by 16” of sugary ground facets. Bummer. It was interesting to note that the snow quality varied along the same planes. The grauple layer seemed to come and go as we further investigated around in the snowpack.

Despite the fact that the top layer was lightweight and unconsolidated (wouldn’t qualify it as a “slab”), we ultimately chose to bail because of the presence of ground facets atop a rocky base. Also, it was clear that the snow above the facets was new from the recent storm, and hadn’t had time to bond with anything beneath it.

Too bad because the snow felt like a dream, and ripping an untracked B&H would have been a nice start to a Tuesday. Alas, no need to play with fire in this year’s snowpack.