Punta Bardini - Old Growth Tour

At the Propane tanks, any trace of new snow from 02/09 had been blown away by the wind and travel conditions were mostly very firm until we got up to ~8,500'.  Ski Crampons would have been nice.  At this point we began to see an increase in the distribution of new snow by the winds of the previous 24 hours.  Until ~8,500' it was hard to find a tree whre the snow was not melted to the ground around it.  Beyond 8,500' the nowpack became more winter like throughout with consistent coverage and soft snow surfaces beginning to prevail.  We dug a pit at 9,850' on a NNE aspect and found 3 crusts at 17cm, 27cm and 42cm down respectively.  Softer faceted snow was found around all three.  Test results were CTH SC @15cm and CTH SC @42cm's down.  Ski conditions were a 6 out of 10 with generally higher quality turns as long as we stayed in protected areas.  When I ventured on to a north aspect to the lookers right of the top of the Bardini Chute, I observed a shooting crack that ran about 1.5 meters out in front of my ski tip.  I observed this wind slab to be of variable depth ranging from 1cm to 10cm.