Zoa

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Heavy
• Wet
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Dense trees
• Mellow slopes

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes
• Steep slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Warm
• Wet
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.
• Rapid temperature rise to near or above 0°C or wet surface snow.

We dug a pit at 1700m on a N aspect that was on a 37 degree slope.

Storm layer - 20 cm (HST)

Jan crust was ~ 90 cm depth

Total depth 380 cm (HS)

Storm layer showed sudden planar failure on hand tap 3 in a hand compression test (CTE3 SP) and also failed with medium pull in a quick hasty pit pull test.

Non planar fracture @ ~70 cm with arm compression test (CTH70 NP).

Good sized cornices seen even on the rounded sub peak of Zoa.