A recipe for cracking snow

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Hard
• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Mellow slopes
• Open trees
• Steep slopes

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes

The day was:

• Stormy
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Very strong wind gusts from Shames base to ridgetop. A good recipe for wind and storm slabs today with moving snow accross all directions. Wind gusts were swirling but came mainly from the N/NE. The few new cm’s (12cm by 12h30) from yesterday and this am are already being packed down by winds and sit on very hard snow.

Most of my turns produced very reactive and large shooting cracks and a few 12cm deep hard slabs. This was both at treeline and BTL in the Shames backcountry.