East Side Tree Laps

Snow conditions were:

• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Dense trees
• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Sunny
• Windy

After finding great snow in the Fraser Chutes yesterday, we went looking for a repeat on the east side of the road in the sheltered trees—and it delivered. Moderate north winds kept us out of the alpine (and made high treeline feel pretty intense), but the skiing below that was all-time.

The new snow seems well bonded to last week’s soft melt-freeze crust. Upper treeline and alpine snow has been heavily sintered by the extreme overnight winds, and we didn’t see much in the way of reactive wind slab—but wind slab is still driving the hazard and will be on our radar this week. Large cornices are hanging off many north-facing ridges, and with longer days and stronger sun, they’ll be worth watching.

And man, it was good to see the sun ☀️