The corner of Pow Blvd and Avy Avenue (Zoa Peak)

La qualité du hors-piste était:

Incroyable

Les conditions de neige étaient :

• Poudreuse abondante

Nous avons parcouru:

• Pentes de faible inclinaison
• Forêt dégagée

Nous sommes restés à l'écart de:

• Pentes convexes

La journée était:

• Nuageuse
• Froide
• De tempête
• Venteuse

Conditions d'avalanche

• 30 cm + de neige fraîche ou transport important de neige par le vent ou pluie au cours des dernières 48 heures

We had plans for a few Zoa laps but there was some trepidation about the quantity of storm snow which was in excess of 50 cm and the wind which was gusting along the top of the ridge at apparently 40 to 50 km an hour.. The light was terrible so we were cautious in our approach and decided to stay well away from the well-known convexity leading into the drainage east of Zola’s false summit. We proceeded one at a time in our group of five on the first aspect of the slope with no signs of any instability and absolutely superb riding qualities to the snow. I was last down the first pitch and so I got first crack at a second pitch that does tend towards being just below the convexity in question which we all had concern concerns about. As a result our plan was to stay well left of the convexity and perhaps even stick to the little ridge above the drainage on the left side. As I proceeded I veered slightly towards the center of the drainage and swung left once into the drainage to gain more of the ridge on the left side and the deemed safe zone. it was at the point of this turn to the left that I triggered the slide which propagated along the entire ridge to the far eastern aspect of the ridge along the convexity. The length of the propagation was likely in the order of 200 m or more the Crown height was at least 30 cm but upwards of 50. I was able to avoid most of the slide just having my skis covered up to about mid shin height and was able to stay on my feet. There was significant amount of hang fire so we made a hasty departure with some concerns about the skin out of that area but saw no more action for the remainder of our tour..

Encountered two other ski tourers who had performed columnar tests with one reporting a planar release at about 30 cm down with five light taps from the wrist. Another report indicated a similar planner release but requiring between five and 10 taps from the elbow.

All i was well and we had a fantastic ski out through the trees and down the pipeline cut to end the day.