| Today I went up to The Cleaver below Sapphire Col and found excellent powder with no wind affects down to the Mousetrap, where we ran into the old avalanche debris. Despite the avalanche hazard in the alpine being rated as moderate this morning, we did not feel comfortable going anywhere near the headwall guarding the col due to the facet layer from November. This layer is widespread, as evident from the recent large avalanche cycle, in addition to isolated skier triggered shearing on this layer on the rock slabs approaching the glacier today, and moderate to hard test results with Sudden Collapse character we found down 125cm in our pit near the Triangle Moraine (we did not find any surface hoar). Also of note, the glacier was more broken than I’ve ever seen it before; even containing small seracs near The Cleaver where I remember a planar slope in previous years.
Enjoy the skiing.
Alex Geary ACMG Ski Guide  .
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