Spring variability on Big Kahuna

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Crusty

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Steep slopes
• Sunny slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Sunny
• Warm
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• Rapid temperature rise to near or above 0°C or wet surface snow.

Air temperatures were cooler today than the past few days, and broken clouds reduced the intensity of solar effect on the snow. Evidence of the recent warm temperatures was widespread, with numerous recent natural loose wet avalanches on steep solar aspects. Some of these had propagated into size 2 wet slab avalanches from steep, shallow, rocky terrain. We didn’t observe any avalanche activity on north aspects. Big Kahuna had been kissed by the sun over the past few days and had a breakable crust overlying cold settled snow in its upper half. A rock hard ice layer was down 30 in the upper couloir, making boot packing difficult, but the snow on top was well bonded to it. There was great corn skiing on the lower half by the afternoon, and isolated pockets of isothermal snow near the bottom.

Big thanks to whatever geological event put this beautiful north facing feature in such a convenient location.