Awesome December Alpine

A tale of two elevation bands out there right now. TL and below has a very shallow snowpack capped with a thick crust and about 5cm of fresh powder. At these elevations there really isn't much opportunity to ride beyond linking snow corridors to higher elevations. The alpine is a different story. The crust disappears at around 1200m and things are starting to fill in. Snowpack depth is variable but sheltered, planar features have 75-150cm of well settled snow topped with 15-20cm of fast skiing powder. We observed one large natural avalanche on a steep north aspect that likely occurred 24-48hrs prior. The crown was up to 100cm thick and given the terrain feature this was likely a large wind slab that released during the stiff south flow that occurred a few days ago. We warmed the legs up with a mellow glacier run but felt quite confident moving into larger, steeper terrain features with careful assessment and some ski cutting. Ski cutting produced only minor sluffing. Great riding and a bit of sun in December!!!