It's beginning to look a lot like... Dome-mas

<p>Today we rode at the Dome, all the way to the summit at 1750m. We were able to see all of the alpine terrain and didn’t observe any new avalanches. We avoided a large wind-loaded slope (lee slope), pictured here, as this is an area where wind slab avalanches could still be triggered by riders or skiers/snowboarders. We dug on a SE aspect at 1700m (in the alpine) and found varied snow depth from 80cm to 130cm. We did not get any propagating Extended Column Test (ECT) results but we did produce failures with moderate and hard hits on a layer of facets sitting on a crust 40cm deep (a buried weak layer). We investigated the temperature of the snowpack and there is a strong temperature gradient (a large change in temperature over 10cm intervals) which is promoting faceting (the formation of weak, sugary crystals) within the snowpack. This is something we are going to keep an eye on as temperatures continue to be cold over Christmas weekend and into next week. Riding conditions were wind affected in the alpine but powder in sheltered meadows.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Convex slopes.

Snow Conditions

Powder, Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy, Cold.