Never Petered out

Snowmobiled and skied towards the crest of the Swan Range, to verify the Wind Slab and Loose Dry avalanche problems in today's forecast. We didn't find them. We didn't find them because a freezing rain episode Wednesday (2/5) left an ice lens that capped the snowpack and nearly eliminated the potential for drifting snow or sluffing since. 

• The crust existed from about 4500 feet to at least 6400 feet (our high point). It is up to a centimenter thick, though it is thinner under trees. It is pencil hard, but somewhat friable because it's thin.
• The 2/5 crust is topped with 1-2" of new, low density snow. 
• 2 other recent crusts are apparent within the top 30-80 cm of the snowpack - the 2/1 (harder, thicker) and the 1/24 (not as distinct; lots of refrozen grains and percolation columns below it).
• The weakest snow near the snow surface is immediately below the 2/1 and 2/5 crusts, depending on location.
• We found small drifts on the exposed ridge we skinned that were not reactive to our weight. Might have been the particular drifts; might have been shrink-wrapped into place by the crust.

Our primary safety concern on our descent was simply descending. Which wasn't too bad. This is no Stahl Peak Death Crust. It doesn't shut down sking and riding... Or maybe we're just getting more practice. I don't want anymore practice. I don't want 10,000 hours of breakable crust skiing.