Solo cheam adventure

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Crusty
• Hard
• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes
• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Steep slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Sunny

Funky wind loading on all aspects of Cheam and Lady peak. There is 0 to 40ish cm of wind slab/sun compacted pockets on a very firm crust on South to West aspects travelled on. Made for interesting route finding on low angle micro terrain.

Only saw localized cracking under skis while skinning up shallow part of these slabs. Stayed away from steep slopes, tested a few mini features with no results. Definetly felt like it could easily be skier trigger at the right spot for a size 1 or 2.

Went up the cheam/lady peak col subpeak and back down the same route.

Also went up and skied about 1-200m off the subpeak of archibald back to the road. facing aspect in the shaded trees were 10-15cm uncosolidated snow(big grains) on a firm crust that made for fun turns.

Really good riding as I was expecting a bulletproof crust, didn't push any peak due to unusual loading while being solo.

tempetatures when going down at 13:00 and sun didn't affect the snow much until 1100m(ish,)

Parked 7km away from the trailhead at 800m but the snow on chipmunk fsr was melting fast below 1000m.