Powder hunting - it's all about the timing!

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Steep slopes

The day was:

• Stormy
• Sunny
• Windy

With 20cms of fresh overnight and the danger rating at treeline and alpine being high, we chose low angle well supported simple terrain at log cabin for today’s ski tour.

In the morning ski pen was 10 -15cm and we watched for signs of reactive slabs such as shooting cracks and hollow drum like sounds. The alpine had a lot more wind affect than sheltered terrain in the trees.

For our first lap we skied low angle (30 degrees) treeline terrain. There were patches of old wind affected snow but overall it was good skiing in the new storm snow. When we did have to cross avalanche terrain we made sure it was small planar slopes with no terrain traps.

By late morning the wind had picked up from the sw with strong winds creating intense snow transport in the alpine and at tree line. Our first skin track filled in quickly and we could watch snow blowing away across the fantail flats. The wind transport was changing the surface throughout the morning. Our second ski line had more wind affect and was a significant change from the first.