Cirque Peak North Couloir

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Wind affected

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Mellow slopes

We stayed away from:

• Sunny slopes

The day was:

• Sunny
• Warm
• Wet

Avalanche conditions

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

Our party of three skied the Cirque North Couloir traverse. We entered and exited near Helen Creek. Another party of three entered at Helen Creek and exited at Dolomite Creek.

Our party bootpacked all the way up Cirque Peak but the other party skinned on the climbers right snow-covered area, closer to the cornice.

We rappelled about 50 m down the couloir on 60 m ropes and found medium quality snow down in the couloir as far down as the glacier. The quality of the snow on the glacier was variable but decent.

As we rounded the east aspect of Cirque Peak, we followed a skin track that was seemingly far enough from cornices to be safe but there was a massive piece of cornice (1.5m x 1.5 m x 0.5m) that had travelled 25-50 m further than a slide it had triggered.