Purple Knob

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Dense trees
• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

The day was:

• Cold
• Windy

Attempted Purple/Hero traverse. Made our way up the north side of Blacksmith Ridge. The lower elevations are harder to pass due to small trees and bush bending under the heavy snow from last week. Significant crust in the trees with 15-20cm of loose dry. Crusts become less pronounced as you gain elevation to the point of loose dry over a consistent consolidated layer 50-90cm. At tree line we had heavy gusting what felt like up to 60kmh with lots of transport, causing variable slabbing up to 20cm thick over a medium density supportive layer. We did note a 10cm layer of facets at the interface with the ground usually 90cm down, grains were fairly small and interfacing fairly well.

We ended up turning around on top of the ridge because of severe lack of visibility and strength of the wind. Skied one of the NE avy paths down as it was nice and consistent snow, powder higher up, with no pronounced weak layers. Awesome, surfy turns!

Someone drew some aesthetic lines down the SE face for Hero's Knob, which were visible from our vantage. Respect!!