Little Sands powow to woahow ?!

Map for Mountain Information Network report: Little Sands powow to woahow ?!

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:
Amazing
Snow conditions were:
  • Powder
  • Wind affected
We rode:
  • Convex slopes
  • Dense trees
  • Mellow slopes
  • Open trees
  • Steep slopes
We stayed away from:
  • Alpine slopes

Information

The day was:
  • Cloudy
  • Cold
  • Foggy
  • Stormy
  • Windy
Avalanche conditions
  • Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
  • 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.
  • Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Comments

Went into little Sands cabin on Feb 27th before the storm. We had the cabin booked, the riding was stable on 27th and beautiful powder. Woke up early on 28th to low vis and snow starting to accumulate. The storm and wind intensified as the day went on, filling in our skin track of blackside every time. We were riding everything in the Ironside bowl zone and by 2pm the conditions were changing rapidly. We made a whump off the cornice and cut a wind/storm slab later and larger sluffing was present. We made our way back to cabin side and the wind was substantial and the snow was nuking. Wind affected skiing was widespread and cracking was occurring even on such gentle slopes. We did go over to cabin side and on the up-tracking, set off a size .5 (no picture as we were below the overhead hazard and needing to focus on getting out of the area). Propogation was throughout even on the 20 deg slopes back to the cabin. See photo of small crowning that was happening just back onto the skidoo track. Freaky stuff! Overnight, set a log out on the top of the recent snowfall of 15-20cms and overnight withing 8hours our prob indicated 40cms by 8am! We loaded up and left the area. Right call as it was high across the board for av contains with a SPAW in effect through Friday (the remainder of our stay).