Wind Blasted at Bijoux

Today we rode to the Pine Bowl to have a look around. Strong Southwest winds had ripped through the meadows and scoured the ridge lines. This left North to East slopes loaded and we saw a couple wind slabs and cornice failures. We also saw two larger avalanches in the Pine Bowl where wind slabs had stepped down to a layer of surface hoar about a meter deep. The extent of these crystals is variable and it becomes difficult to say where this weakness remains. There is a typical low probability / high consequence situation to this persistent problem. We decided to avoid the newly loaded Northeast slopes and found good riding with deep snow in sheltered open trees.