Bridgers Snow Conditions 4.28.09

I went up to Frazier on Tuesday April 28th in the middle of the snowstorm. We wanted to ski in the Frazier Cirque, but found poor avalanche conditions. It was quite clear that there was a lot of wind loading and we found the instability on these wind slabs. We dug a pit at the top of a North-facing chute that drops down into Frazier. The first column released at the most recent crust while I was isolating it. The second and third Compression tests revealed CT5 and CT7 both quality 1. Everything failed at the new snow old snow interface at a depth of 2 to 3 feet on the wind loaded slope.   We felt like the slope would slide so we ski cut it and released the whole chute which yielded up to a four foot crown. I would be careful on Northerly aspects at the new old snow interface. We skied south facing and found stable conditions on the low angle terrain we skied.