Jan 02 Acidophilous + White Queen - play it safe

Went for a quick hike out of Whitewater into Acidophilous yesterday to check things out. As expected there were visible and audible signs of instability with a few whoomphs and cracking as we hiked on the ridge. We played it safe and stayed in the trees keeping it as mellow as possible. There was little sluffing as we skied down, the new snow on the heavier side forming an obvious slab about 20cm deep. Was a fun ski down.

Broke trail up to White Queen. Dropped in through the trees stuck with them most of the way down. Was surprised to feel the crust not quite covered or softened by all the recent snow. As long as the turns weren't to hard was still an awesome ski down.

Based on our observations I would have a healthy respect for the latest slab layer, it's poorly bonded to the sub layers thanks to the sun crust on south slopes and the surface hoar that had built up over the christmas break. We still got out and managed to get some great skiing by picking safe lines through the trees.