New Year. New Snow.

Submitted by
Yukon Field Team
Observations date
Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 20:00
Location
59.704580° N 135.139550° W
Reporting on
  • Snow conditions
Map for Mountain Information Network report: New Year. New Snow.

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:
Amazing
Snow conditions were:
  • Deep powder
  • Wind affected
We rode:
  • Alpine slopes
  • Mellow slopes
We stayed away from:
  • Convex slopes

Information

The day was:
  • Cloudy
Avalanche conditions
  • Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
  • 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.

Comments

The New Year's weekend storm delivered 30-40cm of new snow in White Pass. For this most part, the bond between the new snow snow and old surfaces seems good. That being said, there must have been additional wind in at higher alpine elevations as we observed evidence of a wind slab avalanche cycle isolated to steep, cross loaded, northeast facing alpine gullies. These were mostly size 1+ avalanches but one ran quite far and resulted in a deposition up to 150cm deep so we classified it as size 2. These avalanche observations and quite flat light resulted in us riding smaller, supported, lower angle slopes but the riding was 10/10 over the headlights.
Multiple size "1.5" avalanches in the Big Kahuna area. Likely from Jan 1.
Further up the valley beyond Bryant Lake. This alpine gully was overloaded by wind and snow. It ran quite far and resulted in a pretty deep deposit of snow at its terminus.