Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
I started skiing at ~5,300' and skied up to about 6,800'. My first 500' was on FS road that had 2-3" of soft snow on a rain crust. Looking up the bank from the road, the skiing up or down through the trees is a bit complicated at this elevation range with the normal early season brush issues and an abnormal amount of downed trees. From my rig to the ridge there wasn't a step I took that didn't crack under the skis, but no collapsing. The softer snow was 6-8" deep above 6200-6300', but the ice layer was supportive to my weight. It's about 5mm thick, and I hate to say it, but I'm afraid it it goes to the top of all the peaks in the mid-to-south Selkirks. Plenty of evidence of wind up high with wind waves and some cornices forming. Although I had decent visibility, the light was just flat enough across the valley to not be able to see any evidence of avalanche activity. I dropped into a wind sheltered East facing slope and skied a pitch down to about 6,600' to dig a hasty pit. (Not the best pit location due to nearby trees, but too much exposure elsewhere. ) I only dug 27" deep due to the stoutness of the snow any lower. A quick summary of the CT results: Sheared 8" (F/4F) on 5mm crust as I cut the back wall. Under the crust lies 3-4" of unconsolidated, un-cohesive snow. It literally fell out of the block while being cut. This 3-4" sits on a frozen block that only popped with a very forceful pull on the shovel. It did shear cleanly though on on of the other crusts that are lurking in the snow pack. I climbed back to the ridge, toured around a bit (the wind and rain where everywhere) before skiing what I would describe as a northerly aspect off of a finger ridge on a west -facing slope. It skied pretty good until the last couple hundred feet to the FS road. Lots of obstacles. The snow gets a bit grabby down low. The road skied good to the rig for the most part. The best skiing is sheltered northerly and easterly aspects. Boulder fields aren't ready below 6,000' no matter the aspect.