Skiing west face Woody

We skied a 25 degree west slope today on Woody Ridge.  No sign of instability.  No wumphing or cracking.  No wind effected snow, in forest

5 degrees,at 100pm, light breeze.

HS 110-115 cm

new snow 30 cm. fairly cohesive but not bonded to old-variable

Layer of facets below new snow and above hard layer 60cm deep

Hard layer 10-15cm thick

facets below hard layer

The snowpack depth was variable.  New snow not well bonded to old snow in places

we climbed to 9550 and stopped as terrain got steeper

Coverage was good.  Very good skiing

I might add that several times during the day we commented on the difference in red flags we experienced from Beau's report the day before. We were both S. of Cooke, but differences in that we were in wind-protected forest most of the day, although in meadows above about 9K, more importantly, perhaps is aspect - we were W. and I think from photos, Beau was on an E. aspect. Although we didn't get collapsing or shooting cracks, we all recognized the poor snow structure we were on and we pulled skins when slope angle approached 30 deg.

Average snow depth was only in the 110 cm range and the terrain we were in looked very different from that in a year with a normal snowpack. Sill some snow-snakes and staubs concealed barely below the surface.