Balu Pass

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Powder

We rode:

• Mellow slopes

We stayed away from:

• Convex slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy

I went to Balu Pass, North-East aspect, skiing a simple line from the col (no sign of instability). HS ranged from a few cm at the trailhead to 95 cm at 2050 meters. 30 cm HST overlies a crust given resistant planar result (CTM 15 RP down 30cm on the crust). Bellow this, we found a couple of other big crusts with 1 finger to pencil snow getting harder progressively; no other shear was found. Foot penetration: 30 cm.

Moderate Wind from the SW was blowing snow all day. S-1 most of the day. Visibility was in and out and limited to a few peaks and bowls, but no new avalanches were observed.

We took our skis off a couple of times on the way up and a fair amount on the way down to save our skis. Obviously, it is very early season.