Skiing In The Time Of Cholera

We went to the central Swan Range to do a welfare check on the Mt. Aeneas wind station and assess recent wind drifting.

• Wind slabs were small. In isolated areas above 5500' they were still reactive to the weight of a person, but they were harmless is size - up to 6" deep where we traveled.
• We found between 1 and 4 inches of light new snow that got deeper as we gained elevation. On windward and solar aspects the snow is not bonding well to underlying crusts. Slipping on the skin track was common and ski crampons were handy. On north to northeast aspects the new snow was doing a geat job of masking wind slabs and making what is usually an easy to identify problem hard to see. It was easier to know you'd wandered onto a slab because the snow underneath would feel suddenly denser and hollow and crack around you. 
• In sheltered terrain the new snow sluffed easily on very steep test slopes. These sluffs didn't run far and didn't entrain enough snow to be a problem today. Maybe with more new snow.
• We felt confident that we could manage these problems and planned to ski a steeper line from the weather station, but with zero visibility, and slabs that were already hiding under the new snow, we chose more a more conservative descent rather than try to manage problems we couldn't see.