Staying out of the Alpine at Adrian

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Wind affected

Avalanche conditions

• 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.

We found as much as 40 cm of stiff wind loaded snow above weak facets up Beadnell today, which is a rather unusual setup here on the Island. This is a good time to avoid fat wind loaded terrain features as the upper snowpack adjusts to the recent snow.

The snow line was right around 1000 m this morning, once we got up to 1400 m there was 10 to 20 cm of cold snow that offered surprisingly good riding in places that were sheltered from the wind.

We weren’t crazy about poking into the bigger alpine terrain features, as they feel quite stiff and wind slabby.