Back from Alaska I was quite ready to ski some real powder. I was welcomed with a decent sized storm that laid down 2' of warm cement, but the tail end came in cold adding another 6" of low density powder. On Thursday there was only time for a short tour as we were meeting at lunch for an afternoon of rope work. It was hard to believe that other than the Powderkeg this was my first time in the Wasatch BC for 4 weeks. It was even harder to believe that 10'+ of 5% snow had fallen in that period: "You don't want to know how good it was".
Days Fork was the target. I didn't make the 6am meeting time, instead rolling up to LCC at 8:30am. 4 weeks at sea-level didn't make the ascent to Flagstaff that enjoyable. At the top were some quite impressive cornices.
Nelson had seen two blokes fall through one of the cornices earlier that morning. One of them, along with a refridgerator sized block had slid down the main gut of Days. Fortunately for him, nothing slid and he was OK, and fortunately for us we had a stability test for free. Main Days did not disappoint.
Tracks stacked up - not Alaskan style!
Ascending, it still felt like winter.
However, things were heating up so we stayed as N as we could, skiing Banana Days. So good to be back in the powder!
Towards the bottom it was getting quite heavy - so now I understood the 6am starting time!
Trail-breaking through the powder-turned-to-cement from the base of Bananas was brutal.
Stability was better than I expected though we did stay off the steeper rolls. I released one tiny slab off the ridge on Bananas but that was all.