Sticky like a spilled can of Coke(ly)

Riding quality was:

Terrible

Snow conditions were:

• Wet

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes
• Dense trees
• Open trees
• Steep slopes

The day was:

• Foggy
• Windy

Today’s lack of torrential rain was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. The light drizzle and occasional blue sky cameo made for an enjoyable exploratory mission, in comparison to yesterday’s monsoon.

We staged at the Arrowsmith Park gate and ventured up the road towards Mount Cokely. We were also pleasantly surprised that the snow level was low enough that we could start sliding right from the gate. Up at Mount Cokely we decided to dig a snow profile to see just how far the rain has penetrated the snowpack. We dug down almost 1m, at which point we discovered ice so thick we thought we were going to break our shovels. We also discovered The top 40cm of snow was isothermal and everything below was moist and or crust.

We did not observed any evidence wet-loose avalanches, however we did see some pinwheeling throughout our travels.

Note to self: bring an ice axe if attempting to dig snow profiles to ground.