VIACS

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Deep powder
• Hard
• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes
• Cut blocks
• Dense trees
• Mellow slopes
• Open trees
• Steep slopes
• Sunny slopes

The day was:

• Cold
• Sunny
• Warm
• 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.

Amazing day in the Beadnell Lake area.

Found a wide variety of snow conditions - sunny and steep solar slopes held a dense /breakable melt freeze crust and shaded leeward slopes held 30-50cm of light dry snow.

Dug a pit near treeline in a wind protected leeward zone. Found multiple reactive layers within the upper 120cm of the snowpack.

10cm down from the surface of the snowpack is a surface Hoar layer (size 6mm) reacted to compression tests as a CTM11down 10 SP

Down 55cm from the surface of the snowpack is another surface Hoar layer (size 3mm) , it reacted to compression tests as a CTH 23 down 55cm SP

Down 80cm is a layer of graupel that fell last weekend /Saturday March 7th. Which goes to show you what an excellent week we have had on the island for snow!! This Graupel layer reacted as a CTH 25 down 80 SP

A laminated melt freeze crust exists about 100cm down from the surface of the snowpack. Facets exist within this laminated melt freeze crust and reacted to compression tests as a CTH 27 down 100cm SP

Observed two separate natural avalanches - size 2.5-3 that resulted from cornice fall triggering the surface Hoar layer- the avalanche ran approx 250-300meters long from the alpine down nearly full path.

Another cornice release also triggered a natural avalanche including a 100M (approx) propagation. The avalanche appeared to be a size 1.5 avalanche.