South Purcells

<p>Exploratory day in Redding Creek. Still very early season conditions with not really enough snow to adequately cover buried hazards in most places. North and east facing slopes with smooth ground cover offered some good quality skiing but things are still pretty thin on south and southeasterly aspects where we had to tiptoe around looking for some terrain that wasn’t too rough and bouldery. We skied between 2100 and 2400 m. There’s 70-90 cm on south aspects and 90-110 cm on north and east aspects. This area seems to have only received about 20 cm of settled storm snow from the past week, but at least it is still low density with minimal wind affect. This sits on a mid pack that is supportive enough to carry skiers, but we were punching through into the mess of weak facets and decomposing crusts that make up the lower and basal pack as soon as we stepped off our skis. No recent (or old) avalanche activity observed. No instabilities observed in the upper snowpack, but we had a few whumpfs that likely failed in the facets when traveling wind loaded areas on the immediate lee side of an exposed ridge. Overall a beautiful day out, but more snow is needed. Ullr, are you listening?</p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes, Dense trees.

Avalanche Conditions

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Snow Conditions

Powder.