Balmy Backcountry Fest

What an awesome time at Backcountry Fest! We headed to North Bowl Friday for some baseline snowpack obs and found very hard surfaces anywhere in the shade. The surface crust complex measured up to 40cm deep! Solar aspects softened nicely in mid afternoon and the Doors skied very well. Occasionally it was possible to push some wet snow on top of a shallow crust but definitely not enough to call a wet loose avalanche. Signs of previous pinwheels were widespread and we saw a few older, small wet loose releases. Conditions were a repeat on Saturday and Sunday, with many revelers pushing into aggressive terrain with no signs of avalanche activity.