2/11 Barlow Butte MH

Finally, some fresh snow to chase away the doldrums we have been having.  I toured out of the barlow snowpark in the early morning  down barlow road 1/2 mi.  leaving the road, crossing the drainage on the west side of the butte, and ascending the NNW face in the trees.  this is an area normally good for tree skiing, but not enough new, yet.  lots of ice and tree litter still.  the open glades to the SW of the summit were very nice with 8-10 new over soft granular. no significant warming occurred during the day, and snow stayed fresh.  Thursday should be a goodn' also, in the morning. this side of the Mt offers only moderate pitches but with the limited new over granular it skied very nice as the photo of the decent would indicate.  at 25-30 degrees the stability is good, which brings me to my "get back" decent.  on my way in i had eyed a steeper pitch (40-45) on the SE side directly from the summit, and decided to investigate.  the same underlying granular existed, but due to aspect there was 10-12, and soft slab conditions existed.  i did a couple hasties not finding much different from the SW aspect.  tried a ski cut, and still failed to propagate a slide, so i decided to give it a try.  i chose i line along the east fringe that would give an out under a rock band and some trees.  i think the 3rd photo says it all.  my choice of lines was spot on, and i ducked out at the point of the photo, right as the slide was overtaking me.  I have to say "thanks" to my avy training for helping my make sound decisions, and although a full burrial would not have resulted, injury might have, had i chosen a more central line down this pitch.  the slide track is about 7/8M wide by about 40M long, running out in the trees below.  from this point i turned east and skied the trees down to barlow ridge road north (thanks! to the skier who layed down the skin track, as i was getting tired) to a  cuttoff point, and back to the snow park.  go get it, it's out there!