Atwell

Submitted by: AlpineBread
Observations date: Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 13:00
Location: 49.837670° N 123.006680° W
Reporting on: Snow conditions

Quick

Avalanche

Snowpack

Weather

Incident

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:

Snow conditions were:

Crusty
Hard
Wind affected

We rode:

Alpine slopes
Steep slopes
Sunny slopes

Information

The day was:

Sunny

Comments

Lovely romp up Atwell peak. Skiing however, was mediocre.

Travel from Red Heather parking was icy and firm. You can skin from *almost* the parking lot. The road has broken patches snow until just after the first corner on the skin track.

Moving between Elfin Lakes, Gargoyles, and Diamond Head had firm/semi-icy snow. No ski crampons needs, was still nice and grippy somehow.

Atwell was in great bootpacking condition. Firm and supportive. Definite sun crust. Holds soft snow above 2500m, even in the sun. Lots of old avalanch debris in the run outs.

Skiing was marginal as things never quite softened up into the beautiful spring skiing you hope for. Remained firm but skiable.

East Face of Atwell, taken from Diamond Head.

Atwell East Face. Starting the bootpack. Line is fairly central on the East face in an overall picture. Took the line in this photo that goes slightly up and lookers right through a dog leg.

Midway through bootpack. Line continues through dog leg going up and right onto upper snowfield.

Still has some large and less than friendly corninces near the summit.

View from the top of the ski line. Upper snowfield, looking down. Line drops into the couloir