Powder Valley

<p>Toured up Powder Valley and towards Paddy Peak. Below treeline was a nice small layer of powder snow. At treeline most of it got wind affected and varied from soft to hard wind slab. In the alpine, all North facing slopes and opened areas are wind hammered as one would expect given the recent winds. The alpine snow was very slow (poor glide) for some reason. We were able to make a few decent laps in the trees on an East facing slope. We did trigger a very small slab (15cm deep) that had a crown of maybe 5-6 meters and slid for a few meters until the slope mellowed out a bit. The snow was a very soft wind slab. Just a reminder to avoid anything very wind loaded I guess as there might be a weak interface under there... From the highway, we could see signs of a relatively large natural slide on a steep SE aspect on one of the peaks just North of the Powder Valley entrance.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes, Sunny slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Convex slopes, Steep slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Hard, Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Windy, Sunny.