Panorama East Ridge

tscott_12 , Sunday 15th December, 2024 11:15PM

We ski toured around the Taylor Lake / Panorama E ridge area today for a mellow day with plenty of options and an easy (long) uptrack. Upon reaching the lake, we observed thin slopes on Panorama Ridge and wind-loading on the benches across the lake, thus deciding to take the longer approach to Panorama East Ridge for better options. Creek was mostly filled in, with some openings to watch out for. Luge track slick with some exposed rocks to watch out for on the descent. Weather-wise there were no new stressors added; strong westerly ridge top winds but available snow had already been deposited. Snow on the ridge was a mix of MFsc on solars, 1-8cm spotty WSL on the ridge and immediate lee, and DFs on top of a faceted mid-pack on polar aspects all overlaying the basal MFcrs (5-10cm thick). We found good skiing on steeper NE slopes and in the trees, whereas the ski conditions on the ridge proper were variable but for the most part poor (crusty; wind-scoured to slabby). We used hand shears and constant obs. on the uptrack for our assessments. We observed old (48hr+) avalanche debris from vantage point on the ridge top that had slid from steep, rocky terrain on the NE aspect - sz 2 Na (potentially 1 connected slide of 2x sympathetic) - but couldn’t determine the exact layer from our point of view (suspect WS).