Fairly long-ish day from Km 3.5 on Furry Creek North Main. Twenty-two km round trip I'm told. A bit of up and down so probably over four thousand feet elevation gain. I'll post some pics later in the week so check back. Seven snow shoers and two skiers.
Gate at Furry Creek golf course is open. Another mechanized user said the upper two gates are currently also open, i.e. Britannia Main. Drove to the Km 3.5 mark on the road. Not sure from where the Km 0 is exactly. Skied and hiked to Km 7.5, thereabouts. Crossed on the footbridge reached from Km 7.5 and over to Downing Creek. Crossed Downing Creek about 2 km NE of the Appian-Capilano pass. Headed up the southeast side of Capilano to the crest above the east face. The route is briefly described in Baldwin's latest guide. The east face is a problem that deserves further study.
There were a couple of long snow-free sections on the Furry road between Km 5 and 7 and several shorter sections. The connector route/trail to Downing road was continuous snow. Downing road was well-covered. Most cross-ditches were bridged with snow. At least one meter HS at bottom at 2400 feet and probably over two meters at 3000 feet. Snow was well-supported but not quite spring snow. Still too cold. Several large, destructive slides had crossed Downing road a few days or week earlier and running off the west side of Chanter ridge.
The section up through mature forest on Capilano was dense new snow with a lot of melt dripping off trees. Heavy trailbreaking until we reached consolidated snow from earlier sun on steep south-facing slopes. Not much activity happening. Few pinwheels or surface sluffing even in direct sun. Descent: Skied right of the crest on 35 degree slope then traced the up track back to the road. Pretty decent skiing.
We observed one prominent and perhaps week-old avy on the north side of Appian in the large one km wide bowl. Ran from about 3/4 up the face down to bottom. About 500 meters wide and ran perhaps 300 or 400 meters long. Probably ran in the same time frame as Chanter. Start zone appeared to be along a rock band.
Appian north face toilet bowl. Avy in centre of face.
Chanter ridge avy crossing Downing Creek road.
Capilano summit, south side.
Summit ski.
Subalpine snowshoer.