spring skiing in january

Went over the ridge from Marriott basin to Cayoosh basin. Left car at 8am, travelled on solid ice and a 3" thick crust for the first two hours. Once we got out of the trees and got a look at the alpine slopes, we were amazed at the amount of avy activity over the last few days. South facing gullies were scraped to dirt from what seemed were pinwheel starting points. The debris was old, but ran surprisingly far. The cornices on lee ridge edges were gargantuan and showed lots of signs of breaking. There was also a ton of surface hoar in shady areas. Careful terrain selection on south facing slopes will provide awesome turns before the warm system leaves the area, but it's easy to imagine there will be considerable settling and consolidation that will need to take place after the next storm cycle.