10 Feb - great powder

What a good day of skiing with a great group. On a south aspect from 1900m we skied 5 high quality powder runs on 30-35 degree supported terrain with mostly linear features. There were plenty of smiles after a full day and 1000m vertical accumulated on a powder face that was literally all ours. It was safe and fun. Really fast powder, and so smooth. It started a little cold and snowy, threatened sunshine, the closed in for some wind and more snow. -8C most of the day with winds at the ridge which were loading E through N aspects, and adding to existing cornices. I saw a day old natural Size 1 avalanche an a 45 degree wind loaded SE slope at 1900m and spoke with someone else reliable who mentioned triggering a few Size 1.5's on the newest rain crust: 30-40m wide, 30-50cm slabs or so. This was what I understood to be NE steep terrain at or just below 2100m. The crust at around 1800m on S aspects is between 30 and 60cm deep - depending on how close you are to the more scoured ridge. A reliable depth at 1700m out of the wind is 60cm. Taking a look at the crust - there are plenty of weak facets around it and I had some test results that were a concern. I will be moving in the mountains very carefully on this instability, which is likely to become a new Persistent Weak Layer. Be more careful than usual in avalanche terrain this week.