Great skiing above Tutshi

Map for Mountain Information Network report: Great skiing above Tutshi

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:
Amazing
Snow conditions were:
  • Powder
We rode:
  • Alpine slopes
  • Convex slopes
  • Open trees
  • Steep slopes
  • Sunny slopes

Information

The day was:
  • Cloudy
  • Sunny

Comments

We ski toured in the Tutshi lake area today. Our route took us through all elevation bands from BTL to ALP. We followed a large new avalanche path to upper TL and then an Alpie bowl to the top. Along the way we found a lot of variability in the upper snowpack. From dust on hard slab to powder on suncrust and even a few pockets of buried surface hoar. Because of this variability, we assessed each slope one at a time and took the time to investigate the upper snowpack thoroughly. We dug a test profile on a steep south east facing sheltered glade at upper treeline and found a surface hoar layer down 40cm with a soft slab above it. This layer produced ECTP18 results which indicates it has the potential to propagate into an avalanche if triggered. The upside is that none of these week layers seem to be widespread so careful terrain selection and snowpack assessment can allow you to access some really fun places.