Fryatt Hut Feb 15-19

Fryatt Hut February 15-19 Snow conditions: We were able to find a crossing over the Athabasca River fairly easily, however snow levels in the valley were only a few cm making travel quite rugged even on established skin tracks (RIP skins). We used crampons on the headwall up to the hut. Sheltered trees around the hut offered up to 140cm HS with 10-15cm of unconsolidated snow on a widespread hard breakable crust. Very little snow in the moraines (my skins are now half of what they used to be). Couloirs on N and S aspects held a range of conditions including a variety of crusts, isolated wind effect near ridge tops and the occasional soft turn on lower fans. Avalanche conditions: Little in the way of natural activity was observed with some point releases in very steep sunny Alp terrain and one recent slab suspected cornice failure on N aspect. Skier triggered sluffing in sheltered areas at TL. Dug a pit in the trees and had a CTM RP down 40cm on a laminated crust. No propagation during an ECT. Multiple hand sheers in steep terrain produced moderate non-planar results. Some small isolated wind slabs were found in the alpine on E aspects but had little reactivity when ski cut. Weather: Beautiful! Blue bird with no wind all weekend. No thermometer however temps were cold ~ -20c on Thursday and Friday and got warm Saturday through to Monday where daytime highs were near or above freezing. Nights remained relatively cold.