Lane Basin

Today we took the snowmachines up Archangel Valley to Lane Basin and found an appealing looking couloir to climb. We're still looking for any wind effect or surface instabilities but continue to only find settled snow and good stability. We saw some isolated areas of roller balling where soft snow had released from steep rock faces in solar aspects. On the snowmachine riding conditions were firm and grippy, but previous tracks and trenches made for occasionally bumpy travel. Higher on the slope on skis we found variable but soft faceted turns intermixed with isolated areas of thin wind skin and sun crust. On our way back home we took a detour to check out conditions in Sydney Creek and found a lot of snowmachine tracks with a few little lanes of soft snow to play in and practive skills.

Variable surface conditions continue to evolve in the absence of any new snow. We found some thin sun and wind crusts, as well as faceted surfaces and older wind board. Overhanging cornices were the only thing that appeared to pose any objective hazard, but we've still yet to see any sign of them releasing. We did not observe any dry or wet loose sluffs due to mostly cohesive snow surfaces and not quite enough daytime warming.