cold
Observation: Douglas Island
Location: Showboat ridge
Skinned up showboat with ambition to ski showboat extreme (off the top of showboat ridge). It was wind scoured so we checked out a line two gullies South. We did a brief snow assessment then decided to ski down just to skiers right of showboat.
Weather
Snow surface
Soft fluffy snow with gradually increasing density.
Snowpack
We dug on the ridge above the intended line and found more wind slab action than expected. ECTP23 CT22 on a crust 50 cm down. We opted to ski a mellower line instead. On the descent we triggered a couple of wind pockets in small crossloaded gullies next to showboat. Avalanche terrain decision making is generally a wicked learning environment with no feedback as to whether we choose wisely, foolishly, or overly conservatively. It was neat to have that immediate validation that we chose well to not ski a committing gulley.
Showboat ridge: Red dot is our pit location and orange line is our approximate descent.