Big Cornices on Whymper

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Powder

The day was:

• Warm

Skied North Whymper up to the col.

Light snowfall accumulating to a few cm in the morning, calm-light winds, warm day, clearing in afternoon with top 10cm of snow becoming moist at 2100m on Northerly aspects.

Fast travel in the Chickadee valley with ~15cm over the crust.

Dug test pit on open north treeline lee @ 2090m. Found a 50 of fist to 4 finger snow above crust complex. Down 50cm there is a 1cm knife crust then 8cm of 4F-F 1-2mm facets above a bulletproof 20cm crust. This layer produced sudden planer results on compression tests in the moderate range.

House size cornices looming over the Whymper north col as well as on the ridge to climbers right made for nervous travel trying to work terrain to minimize exposure with the warming.

Lots of loose dry off the headwalls and couloirs all day, in steep terrain sluff ran far. Below 2100m easy to entertain loose wet snow and start small size 1s.