Big Blue Fantasy

Map for Mountain Information Network report: Big Blue Fantasy

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:
Amazing
Snow conditions were:
  • Deep powder
We rode:
  • Mellow slopes
  • Sunny slopes
We stayed away from:
  • Alpine slopes
  • Convex slopes
  • Steep slopes

Information

The day was:
  • Cloudy
  • Foggy
  • Sunny
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.

Comments

Broke trail into Big Blue with around 30cm of new snow on the ground. Navigation was difficult due to flat light conditions. The weather was calling for partly cloudy so we were optimistic it would break up. Dug a pit at 5500ft on a south-facing slope at roughly 30deg. Found a base of 250cm. Top 30cm was consolidated into a storm slab reacting to a isolated column compression test. Sudden planar fracture on the 3rd tap from the elbow. We didn't proceed to do an extended coloum test but it was noted that on the ski down in mellow terrain under 30deg snow was propagating. No sings of recent avalanches. We opted for less touring and more exploring Via sled! Snow was phonemal!! Although my pictures all have sun in them there were actually only 2 hours of the day in which we had proper light.