Feb 13-15, 2010, Wing Ridge

Brenda and I decided enough is enough and made a last minute decision to head over to the Wallowas and try to find some real snow. The wallowa avalanche center was reporting improved conditions in both avalanche and snow quality, so we though we'd take a chance. We spent most of the three days touring in what they call south bowl, which is our favorite area on Wing Ridge. Found excellent snow everywhere on Sat, although very bony down low. Things deteriorated the following two days with the increasing temps, but quality snow was still found in the higher bowls on north aspects. Seems they've been having snowpack issues all year. I was particularly concerned with the nasty depth hoar the area has been dealing with all season. Up until this last week not many folks had been doing much skiing  because of it. We found no major instabilities, but still tried to keep it mellow and off sun exposed slopes. Our quick pits found similar conditions described on wallowa avalanche center website http://www.wallowaavalanchecenter.org/html/12_feb_10.html.