Forever Young Couloir via Youngs Traverse

<p>Spent the day in the Illecillewat area, as a party of 6. Objective: Forever Young Couloir. Access via Young’s Traverse. 5cm of new snow in the carpark, which increased in depth and quality as we climbed, with 20-25cm of light unconsolidated pow at the entrance to Young’s Couloir. Observed little in the way of sun/solar effecto, the glacier travel was near-whiteout, but it was fairly warm up on the glacier. We dropped in at 1pm, and the first turns resulted in a few short benign cracks as a result of settling powder on the convex roll, but it quickly sloughed away below. After a few more turns the main gut of the couloir had fully sloughed. It was then skiing on the firm packed snow from the last week. At the very bottom the slough had accumulated on the fan and made for some surprisingly deep and stable pow skiing. Skiing back to the trail below was 20cm of blower pow. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes, Open trees, Steep slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Sunny slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy, Foggy, Warm.