Saddle route outing

Nice outing up the Saddle Route. The weather was calm and the snow was deep. The Av report had us taking it easy today but good turns on moderate terrain were enjoyed. With ~80cm of snow being deposited throughout the last week with a good deal of wind, and ~20cm of that having arrived over the last couple of days, our plans for the day were simply to poke around Jewel Lake. We found little signs of concern on our ascent up the saddle but were greeted by a size 1.5-2 loose wet slide at the base of the bumps headwall on the SE aspect (pic). Multiple other crowns were noted near the numerous steeper alpine lines on the east aspect of the bumps. Obviously loaded terrain has been dishing out naturals over the last week. One group member triggered a ~1.5 on a convex roll just SW of Jewel Lake. It appeared to be caused by wind loading of the most recent storm snow (10-20cm crown), and was an estimated 15m wide. Member skied out from the incident unscathed. Temps rose around noon, and Mother Nature had showed us enough signs to head on out for the day. Sadly the rain moving in won’t let us get back on this snow after giving it more to set up. Don’t worry though folks, there’s plenty of corn snow in our futures up at Arrowsmith.