Lyle Lakes

La qualité du hors-piste était:

OK

Les conditions de neige étaient :

• Poudreuse
• Affectée par le vent

Nous sommes restés à l'écart de:

• Pentes alpines
• Pentes convexes
• Pentes raides

La journée était:

• Froide
• Venteuse

Objective was to head for the summit of Mt. Brennan but to reassess at the lakes when we got there as strong winds in the ALP were expected. We noticed some recent sz 1-2 Na wind slab avalanches on the way up at about 2050m (TL) and above, releasing in cross loaded features on E-SE asp.

We encountered a group of 4 skiers just below Lyle Basin that were heading back down as we were going up. They said they had remote triggered a wind slab and one member of their party went for a ride and lost a ski. No burials, no injuries, ski was not recovered. (They posted an incident MIN report)

As we entered Lyle basin we were able to see the avalanche the party triggered. Looked like a Skier Accidental, good sz 2 on an E asp at 2150m. Bedsurface unknown. They had opted to try an alternate route up towards Brennan to avoid the traditional Mouse Trap feature that leads to the ALP. Photos attached. (green “?” is possibly where the involved member ended up as that’s where we saw the boot tracks leaving from.) Thankfully they were ok.

Strong Easterly winds were already reloading the crown, but we suspected 60cm at the deepest point, and 50-75m wide running 150m to the flats.

We turned around after an easy consensus at the lakes, and skied the variable conditions back down to the bottom. On the way down observed a Na sz 1.5 loose avalanche- similar to others observed before- that most likely started up high as a wind slab release. No wind below 2000m but previous wind effect in open features down to 1500m, Sun crust noticed on steep solars. Good skiing in sheltered zones BTL. Too cold to hang out for an air temp at top; howling winds plus frost nip spots on the nose could put it around -20.