Powdery Pines

Powder day in Bijoux! The crust in the parking lot tapered off quickly and by Treeline it was deep powder. In the Alpine the snow was wind effected, with scoured ridge tops and loaded north facing slopes. We saw recent cornice and windslab avalanches, size 2, on steep northerly alpine features. With the deepest powder and no slabs in sheltered trees we had an easy choice to stay away from Alpine terrain. In Pine Bowl, last week's crust was down 50cm, 13cm thick, and well bonded to the snowpack. However, on the way up, in the trees past the cabin meadows we found surface hoar on the crust during a trail building session. It's so isolated that we don't think it's an avalanche problem but we're definitely tracking it.