Field of Dreams

Day off ski with better-than-expected snow and weather conditions.

• Strong westerly winds at ridges, though we experienced calm to light winds on our easterly and northerly ascent route. Light blowing snow above 6500 ft.  
• Below 5000 feet, the snow surface in open areas was 1-2" of wet schmoo on a supportable crust. In forested areas, no schmoo; barely supportable melt-freeze grains littered with debris.
• From 5-6000 feet, the surface was moist-dry recent snow. Some glopping on the skins. 
• Above 6000 feet, we found this week's 4-6" of snow remained dry. It sat on a <1" crust with about an inch of small facets below. Some planar shears above and below the crust in hand pits, but the snow above isn't a stiff slab where it's not wind affected. 
• We found some thin (1-3") 4 finger hard wind slabs in open areas, along with other wind effects (images). We avoided steep, leeward slopes below the ridge because of likely wind slab hazards. 
• We enjoyed settled, recycled pow on our north-facing descent until about 5400 feet, when we paid the price in a "field of dreams" - several hundred feet of fresh, refrozen rollerballs (image). After that, happy to see the schmoo. 
• Made it out just before the ominous clouds collided and the snow and rain started in earnest.