Video East, 8812 Bowl and Cheops North 5

<p>Thought that the 45 cm recent HST combined with the bluebird forecast would make for nearly ideal conditions around Balu Pass. Our assumption turned out to be real close to reality. Left the parking lot at dawn to be ahead of the weekend crowds. No tracks on Video Peak but a skin track leading to the south facing gully just east of it made for a pleasant approach. Two hand shear tests were performed on SE aspect before and along the series of tight switchbacks leading to the ridge of Video. The storm snow was right side up with 1F density at the base. A definite weak layer underneath but we judged that the storm snow did not have enough cohesion/slab properties yet. So we proceded and pushed a track to the summit. We observed some cracking at a few switchbacks but no propagation. On our way down, we avoided the right side of the East South East facing slope as it looked slightly crossloaded when looked at from the bottom. Skied Hospital Bowl to the Hospital Knob and headed up Bruins Ridge to Bruins Pass. 8812 Bowl had about 12 tracks down in the main draw so we took one of the right lines towards the middle of the bowl. There again, all dry powder with boot top powder. Once under Balu Pass, we headed up the lookers left skin track and followed it to the top of Cheops North 5. Nickie's Notch had close to ten tracks down it while Cheops North 5 had none. We headed down Cheops North 5 and found some slightly wind effected snow the whole way down until traversing into the bottom of Cheops North 4 (which got skied today) where the fan skied really well. Of note, a large shallow crown could be observed on the skiers right side of Cheops North 5 along the base of the cliffs. It seemed to have run sometime near the middle of the last storm. The new snow has not only reset the ski slopes and the ski out is now in excellent condition all the way to the highway.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Steep slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Convex slopes.

Snow Conditions

Powder.

Weather Conditions

Sunny.