5 mile

We hit a few laps on 5 mile Saturday, January 30th.  The up route was up and over Half-dome.  We skied N-NE aspects and climbed back into the saddle then back over half dome.  The snow pack wassolid with varrying 5-15 cms of wind driven fluff.  Skiing was surprizingly good.  The snow pack under the fluff was styrofoam consistency which carved well -- not crusty, although a little fast.  Protected lines in the trees that didn't get solared were deeper and softer and we had good sustained lines.  We didn't dig a pit although we cut the snow aggressively at the top and nothing was moving other than a little sluff.  We backed away from a 50 degree NE chute that looked like a hoar frost factory.  If anything was going to move on the persistent weak layer it was that.  Otherwise we found the stability consistent with the bulletin.