<p>ACC Whistler Section Trip to WT Hut 03/15-03/17. On the Friday we arrived, temperatures held seasonal and we rode North and North-eastern aspects in the alpine. A weak layer was identified 14 inches down at 2000m that had not strongly bonded below Monday's storm layer on top. The bond was observed to weaken higher in the alpine above 2200m, but no skier triggered instabilities were observed in the Honey Bronced Bowl. On 03/16, we repeated our laps up Honey Bronced Bowl and Highly Desirable (looker's left of Honey Bronced) with warmer air temperatures with the Hut thermometer reading 6 C. The snow kept well, and mild cloud cover prevented isothermic effects on North and North-Eastern slopes. Another party reported shooting cracks and variable wind slab affected snow on a separate Eastern aspect in the alpine. On the afternoon of 03/16 we skied a Southern Aspect directly above the hut and the snow had held well despite the warming air temperatures. A sun crust was beginning to form and by nightfall, a moonlit tour party had reported that the aspect we skied earlier that day had turned into significant freeze/thaw crust. On the morning of 03/17, we returned to Highly Desirable bowl, a NE facing aspect to ski our laps from earlier that weekend. With an early start, we noticed high affects of solar warming affecting sun-exposed alpine terrain. Sluffs became heavier that day, although snow quality remained good in shady and steep aspects which we chose to ski that morning while the sun had yet to affect them. We left the hut at 11AM PST on our ski-out and we heard one Size 2 avalanche, followed by some members of our group observing a separate Size 2 Wet Loose avalanche. Both of these occurred between 12:30 to 13:30 and were observed on terrain to the south of the Basin, but aspects were unconfirmed. Many new sluffs with point releases were observed on the ski-out. Clear skis, thawing, and rapid rising of temperatures summarized the weather for 03/17.</p>
Terrain Ridden
Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Sunny slopes, Open trees.
Terrain Avoided
Sunny slopes, Convex slopes.
Avalanche Conditions
Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.
Snow Conditions
Crusty, Heavy, Wet, Powder.
Weather Conditions
Warm, Cloudy, Sunny.
Location:
50.43000000 -122.47300000
