Cowboy Ridge

<p>We skied beautiful fresh powder off Cowboy Ridge. There was fresh snow fall in the morning, which progressively cleared throughout the day. A snow profile about halfway up the ridge (~1750m) showed a consolidated snowpack that took quite a bit of effort to fail in a compression test. We observed a weak layer about 30cm down and the early December rain crust causing all the PS problem in the S2S region 1-1.5m down. This definitely concerned us as it was obvious triggering something on this layer had the potential to be catastrophic and so stayed cautious with our decision making and terrain choices. The face was not wind affected and we saw no other signs of avalanche activity at the time of the snow profile. When skiing out, we saw that there was a slide far skiers right on the ridge (shown in picture) it was hard to tell from the distance, but we don’t think it stepped all the way down to the PS layer. This slide probably happened between 2-3PM. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes.

Snow Conditions

Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Sunny.