Seek The Shade …….

Map for Mountain Information Network report: Seek The Shade …….

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:
OK

Information

Avalanche conditions
  • Rapid temperature rise to near or above 0°C or wet surface snow.

Comments

Headed up to Mear Lake today with light hearts, having seen the overnight low of minus ten (-10 ! …. mid April!) ….. we were disappointed with the freeze however. We figured that the 10 cm of recent soft snow had insulated that 20 cm of moist snow from Monday’s rain event.

Once the sun came around, we saw numerous Loose Wet avalanches to Size 1.5 on steeper sunny slopes in the Alpine and at Treeline.

We also saw numerous older Wet Loose avalanches up to size 2.5 from Sunday / Monday /Tuesday

Winds were calm all day, with no evidence of wind in the recent soft snow.

Skiing was good in the shady places we could find, where we enjoyed 10cm dry snow. Those places were up at treeline and as low as 1900 m in the full shade (full north, or in shady mature forest).

The groomed trail from Round Prairie was pretty boney for the first couple of km’s, and we heard that the Overflow route was mostly grass …..