Low expectations

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Powder
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Steep slopes

The day was:

• 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.

Great to get out in the Perry Creek today, with a lot more snow than expected. Snow depths at tree line were 200-240 cm, with new snow drifting heavily in sheltered Lee areas. We stuck to mellow tree lines as we wanted to avoid exposure to the building wind slabs, and we saw numerous smaller signs of instability throughout the day.

Winds were high to extreme as forecasted, with visibility often down to 50 m or less. Several layers of recent wind affected snow are reactive, with new snow slabs failing in the easy range and older wind slabs failing in the hard range (ECT5 SP down 10 and ECT 24 RP down 35)

There’s great snow in the trees with more still coming down.