Bluebird weekend with the Snowball festival.  EV saw big numbers. 140 by two o’clock yesterday, 90 by noon today.  Top of the World today reveals tracks everywhere. Temperatures rising again over 30 degrees.

Saw  JD the Poma. He mentioned  that  he has seen plenty of large groups yesterday teeing it up everywhere.  Tracks in the middle of west wall with no slide activity. Tweeners was stomped and Abe’s as well, confirming JD’s story.   Met up with Law at the top by chance, grouped up with  MFD and Atomic Mid Fat. Followed them down to Old Man’s.  Cornice had risen dramatically with the wind arriving with the clearing storm.

Waited and watched the first two try to attack the cornice with a rope.  Without the proper weight  in the middle of the rope the rope cut nothing but plate sized chunks of snow while exposing them both to the edge of the overhang. They inched their way off the Old Man’s entrance with every rope toss and ended up over King Tut’s still trying to lasso a part of the cornice. I waited with Law above and watched.  Good to leave a person in a safe area if you decide to tackle a cornice.  I learned that lesson after my turn at cornice stomping left me with a ski in midair.  A pole from Law  behind me helped me back up to solid ground.

Skied lower down above the entrance proper as the calf roping continued.  I asked them to back off a second.  I probed the edge of the new cornice section at the entrance with my pole and gave a few good stomps.  A sizable chunk of the newly formed section of cornice dropped and  impacted the crown area of last weeks slide, the old bed surface in the middle of Old Mans almost completely filled in with the recent new snow. The chunks exploded on the scarp and ran through the frying pan.  No step down, the new snow in the middle of the bowl held tough. Even with three hundred tracks in EV the last couple days, the rest of Old Mans was a blank canvas.

Dropped the entrance, skirted the debris and skied a surprisingly good Olds tree chute far right.  Exited through lower trees where the snow was rapidly warming.