Hiroshima Trees

Trace of snow on Wednesday's eggshell rain crust between 1050 and 1150m. 25 cm ski pen after that. Wind affect from the strong to extreme SE winds became noticeable on the NE aspect from 1600m with widespread 10-20cm finger slabs on the lees when we topped out at 2050m. A few hand shears on the NE aspect while skinning up produced easy results down 20cm under the wind affected snow and moderate to hard sudden planar results down 35cm on the January 10 (?) surface hoar. Three day old 30-50cm deep crowns could be seen on steep unsupported NE facing gully features. These seemed to have been initiated by loading from the SW. The steep north facing main bowl/face had widespread windslabs at the very top, as well as evidences of intense sloughing in most gullies and on other steeper pieces of terrain. A SZ 2 had initiated on the topmost far skier's left near 2000m and had run over 500m to just passed the road at 1500m. A few good turns were had but overall the conditions were quite variable. The lower gully from 1500m to 1400m held the best snow.