French/Haig/Robertson

<p>Today we were the first of three parties making the French/Haig/Robertson traverse. Approx. 10 cm of fresh snow had fallen yesterday which made us break trail most of the day along with the other parties who catch up with us. Travel below and at treeline was fairly easy by following scars of an old skin track. On the East aspect of the valley we could see wet slabs debris from the previous days and a fair amount of cornices. Once we reached the morraines, ski penetration varied from 0cm to 25cm which offered a good workout. We had a mix of sun and clouds once we reached the glacier which limited the solar radiation on the slopes above. Temperature remained in the below 0c all day. Approaching the col of French/Haig, one loose dry naturally released from the steep east face of Mount Haig but didn't propagate to any other layers once it hits the valley bottom, that event definetely gave us a boost to keep pushing through the deep snow to reach safe unexposed ground on the Haig Glacier. We didn't bothered removing skins to reach the bottom of the col of Robertson/Haig. The R/H col was fully snow covered which let us skin up to the top of it without the need of a bootpack or ski crampons. Obvious windloading had happened on the North side of the col, but there was a nice ramp that offered a well supported run. Skiing down Robertson offered great views, but it was definetly on the slow side of things. We could see evidence of old debris from the natural cycle from a couple weeks ago and not a lot of mature cornices compare to French Creek. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes, Convex slopes, Sunny slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Steep slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Snow Conditions

Heavy, Hard, Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Windy, Cloudy, Sunny.