Variable Conditions at the Throne

We rode to the motorized boundary and toured up the shoulder of the Throne, poked out to the north-facing runs at the top, and then moved to the south-aspect gully from the upper saddle. 

Winds have worked over many slopes near the Throne. We found some slopes stripped nearly to dirt with the snow blown off to who knows where, and others had wind-sculpted sastrugi. Trees were broken off, and debris littered the snow surface. We probed for snow depths. On the east face, depths ranged from 20 cm to 100 cm on the shoulder (we may have missed deeper spots). At the upper portion of the north-facing run, we found 50-75 cm depths. The south face had a 115 cm depth.

There was some isolated wind-loading mid-slope. We saw one old crown that was nearly drifted in on a steep break over at mid-elevation on the east face. 

Somehow, we found a slope sheltered from the wind's effects. Because the danger is low on non-wind-loaded slopes, we considered traveling down through avalanche terrain. Before we did, we assessed stability to give us one last chance to turn around, and we followed safe travel practices, exposing one skier at a time to potentially hazardous terrain.