The middle fork to the rescue

We procrastinated chores and work by heading to the Middle Fork for short ski tour

• Flat light and low clouds limited our ability to observe any recent avalanche activity.
• In the places we could see, we did not observe cracking under our skis, sluffs, or other signs of slab instabilities.
• Mild temps of 15 F with no wind, and very light snow (S-1?) throughout the afternoon.  
• Our numerous hand pits as we ascended clued us into depth irregularities of new cohesionless soft snow
• Our humbling high point of 5200’, we measured 60cms of soft snow sitting on 15cms of facets on the decomposing 1/13 crust.
• The impressive debris from avalanches in January (observed 1/19) made for interesting terrain features (photo). Avoiding these freshly covered ice-blocks was our primary riding hazard.
• Back at the trailhead, we noted our car had a meager .5cm of snow accumulation from the day.
• If anyone was curious, the alder fields are still plentiful. We only need about 5 more feet of snow to cover them.