A Smithers Classic

I took advantage of ideal weather & avy conditions to do a solo trip of The 7000. Starting at 5am to calm clear skies, a half moon, a nascent sun, and ~5cms of fresh snow blanketing everything made for excellent travel & creamy ski conditions. Other than some recent small cornice drops in Simpsons Gulch that only entrained surface snow, the crust below the new snow was locking everything in place. On steep aspects the surface snow where it was dry & powdery would sluff a bit, or where it was thin wind slab would break into small plates & cartwheel downslope but did not entrain anything. Up high, the snow stayed mostly dry but nearing 11:30 am when I was almost done and off the big line, TL & BTL did produce small wet loose slides. A look into the debris filled bottom of the main avalanche chute is a sober reminder of terrain traps magnifying the awesome & destructive power of wet avalanches.