Spring has brokely at Cokely

AvCan Vancouver Island , Tuesday 21st March, 2023 4:00PM

Spring solstice inspired us to head south in search of dream (on) turns at the old Mt Arrowsmith Ski Area on Mt Cokely. The Pass Main logging road quickly turned from dirt to snow at around 700 m. We had no problem snowmobiling up the t-bar run to the top of the old ski hill. Skinning up the ridge to the peak of Mt Cokely was a bit of a choose your own adventure with the ski pen being 0 cm! With one of us boot-packing and the other skinning it was fairly quick travel to the top. Recent new snow has bonded very well to the surface with the help of warm temperatures. The top 5 cm of the snowpack is a melt freeze layer, but to our delight was not penetrable on skis for our descent! We noted significant pinwheeling on solar aspects, up to the size of an exercise ball, but no new avalanches observed. All in all, a fun day in the mountains.