A Full Throttle Kind of Day

Riding quality was:

Amazing

Snow conditions were:

• Deep powder

We rode:

• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes
• Cut blocks
• Steep slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Foggy
• Stormy
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.
• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

At our morning meeting we counted another 20cm overnight, bring storm totals, we thought, to 60+cm This was accompanied by strong winds so we choose to stay out of all avalanche terrain. We made a conservative plan to follow the meadow chain up valley towards Walbridge.

In the field we quickly realized there was more like 90cm storm snow and still rapidly accumulating. The snow was bumper deep minimum, over the hood when braping, and parking a sled level was asking for a stuck. Strong wind gusts reduced visibility to zero. By the Broadview Pass junction we realized our conservative plan was not conservative enough and we stopped for an impromptu 'tail gate' meeting. We assessed that the current conditions had raised consequences of even minor incidents too high so we decided to turn back and work closer to the cabin in order to reduce our exposure. This still left us with plenty of powder riding and movement skill building opportunities.