Take Me Down To Rollerball City

Went to the Skyland area to fill a gap in recent observations.

• All aspects below about 6000 feet were wet from several days with no re-freeze. It was easy to trigger rollerballs below that elevation.
• East aspects up to 7000 feet got wet for the first time today. Widespread natural rollers came tumbling down a steep east-facing slope in our drainage all day. 
• Southerly aspects up to about 6500 feet had been through a melt-freeze cycle on the 7th. The surface got wet, and we could trigger rollers, but no natural activity.
• Ridgelines had old hard (1F) wind slabs, sometimes below sagging cornices. We kicked off a few medium-sized cornices, which took some effort. They didn't do so much as crack the slabs on the slopes below, or entrain any snow as the blocks barreled down the hill. Winds increased throughout the day at all elevations and we saw some light blowing snow, but there's not much available for transport.
• We found no buried surface hoar. The late January facets were down about a foot and a half in our snowpits. They were 1-2 mm, rounding, and we got no propagation in our stability tests. So, the warm weather has been good for something. No collapses, shooting cracks, recent slab avalanches or other signs of instability from the persistent slab problem.

We avoided convexities and steep slopes with likely trigger points and found good skiing in soft dry snow on shady, sheltered slopes. Shady slopes that had been wet in the morning were crusting over on our ride out to the trailhead.