Grizzly Shoulder - Little Sifton - Puff Daddy

<p>20-30cm ski pen in the trees, 30-40cm in openings until treeline. Isolated patches of suncrust from yesterday's sun on the very steep solars. A quick hand shear test at 2000m on a south aspect revealed a moderate resistant planar down 55cm in the storm snow. A few ski cuts at 2100m in the south facing start zone of the main Grizzly Shoulder run did not produce any result. It skied amazing right down to Connaught Creek. We went back up all the way to the Little Sifton saddle to get a feel for wind affect in the alpine. Some (20cm+ thick buried windslabs from the strong SW winds could be felt on the lees of the ridge features on the approach to Little Sifton. Little Sifton itself had ripples on the surface from the recent moderate NE winds but the slab was very soft and showed no propagation as evidenced by the lack of reactivity from six skiers that skied down from the summit. We considered dropping on the north side but a hand shear test on the left entrance produced easy sudden planar results down 25cm while the right side of the cornice had 10cm of unconsolidated snow over a 1F+ hard slab. We skied down the SSE into the leftmost part of Puff Daddy where a partially filled 1m+ deep crown could be observed (likely from avalanche control) on the far left above the Grizzly slidepath. We went down the somewhat supported east shoulder on which the old windslabs from the SW winds could be felt under 10-20cm of new snow. No results could be obtained from the steep unsupported features (pillows). The far skiers right of the shoulder also had an older crown. Once below the steeper part we cut back right to the more open path in the upper part of which 15-20cm of new snow were covering an older debris. The sides and the bottom skied well. The alders were a little tight near the bottom but nothing impassable. A great day all in all with no whoomphs or cracking anywhere. There was thin layer of high elevation clouds. Moderate wind from the north at ridgetop with light to moderate transport (reverse loading the immediate lee) observed off most summits above 2500m. No inversion felt as the thin clouds and the wind kept things cool in the alpine. The best skiing was found in sheltered BTL locations (main run of Grizzly Shoulder).</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes, Sunny slopes, Open trees.

Snow Conditions

Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Windy, Cloudy.