January in April?

Submitted by
Yukon Field Team
Observations date
Saturday, April 10, 2021 at 19:00
Location
59.720570° N 135.065610° W
Reporting on
  • Snow conditions
Map for Mountain Information Network report: January in April?

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:
Terrible
Snow conditions were:
  • Crusty
  • Wind affected
We rode:
  • Mellow slopes
  • Open trees
We stayed away from:
  • Alpine slopes
  • Convex slopes
  • Steep slopes

Information

The day was:
  • Cloudy
  • Cold
  • Stormy
  • Windy
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

Today we went to investigate the reactivity of new windslabs on solar aspects. We linked up low consequence pieces of terrain to travel up into Fraser chutes today. The past 36hrs of NE wind had found its way into most if not all places. Travel was very variable. It was a flash back to winter with -17c temps, light gusting mod NE winds, overcast and snowing less than 1cm per hour.

Wind slabs are still reactive. At 1150m SE aspect, an extended column test propagated across the entire column on isolation (ECTPV) down 55cm on the same melt freeze crust that produced results yesterday. The block was hard and heavy (pencil).

Placing the avalanche problem onto terrain features and discussing consequences before entering terrain.
55cm of new windslab over a buried melt freeze crust.
This slab popped during isolation (no taps yet).