Out for a quick tour over Skook Peak then over to Oz and back. Sustained moderate winds were scouring the upper 50' of Skook face and building big ol' cornices on the lee side. We stomped a couple of very small, freshly formed cornices -which broke easily underfoot- and gave a wide berth to all the rest.
Dug a quick pit at the top corner of Oz - 6800' 38 degree N slope HS150 ECTP16 @50cm on the well-developed facet layer. In the pit we noted that the new wind-deposited snow was not as slabby as expected (4F), the buried surface hoar layer remained @75cm (but wasn't reactive to our test), and the basal facets seemed to be rounding (thank you recently mild temps!).
We opted to ski tight protected trees rather than poking into the gut of the path and observed nothing other than managable sluffing. We noticed no collapses, no cracking, and no recent avalanches while returning back to WMR.
WMR - Skook Ridge - Land of Oz - Skook Ridge - WMR
