Observation: Turnagain

Standard route up to ridge, skied untracked lines in about 30cm of new snow off the ridgetop. Beautiful clear skies above the inversion cloud layer; overcast skies moved in from North during the afternoon, winds calm/light throughout the day. Nothing too exciting to report. Dug a quick snowpit on the route up and did a couple column tests – one CT (planar failure at new snow/old snow boundary – about 10cm deep, rough shear due to new snow not yet cohesive enough to act like a true slab yet), and one ECT (no propagation); snowpack relatively uniform with two crust layers down deep (by probe)…did not notice any thick facet layer by probe to ground (full 240cm length of probe to reach ground). Other obs – saw a few old crowns above treeline partially filled in and a couple very small (two ski widths) soft-slab new snow avalanches that ran about 30 feet in steep trees. Stomped some cornice above treeline and got mildly reactive fractures a meter or two beyond ski tips. The old natural avalanches that we observed had not stepped down to deeper instabilities.