Banana Chute

Riding quality was:

OK

Snow conditions were:

• Heavy
• Powder
• Wet
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Steep slopes
• Sunny slopes

The day was:

• Sunny
• Warm

Avalanche conditions

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

We skied Banana Chute in the late afternoon. The bootpack was a solar oven with a mix of wet snow, crusts, and rock, but the high N/NW aspects had dry snow. Wind slabs sheared cleanly at about 5cm and 15cm in hand pits very close to the ridge and some of the 5cm slab released in a ski cut across the chute entrance.

Lower in the chute (around 2000m) the snow was soft but heavy and becoming wet.