Taiya NW Glacier

<p>Skied a few laps on the Taiya NW glacier - elevation range 1000-1900 m. Daytime temps stayed cool, although sunny, with a moderate SW wind all day. Crust integrity on the snow surface remained throughout the day. Evidence of an avalanche cycle was apparent on NE slopes above Bryant Lake. Big Kahuna has debris in it that ran from approximately mid slope to almost the lake. Alpine slopes still feel quite wintery. At 1400 m on a NW aspect I probed 215 cms, in this area I dug into the slope for a lunch spot and found over 1 m of pencil to 1F snow. Down approximately 1 m was a crust which had some faceting above. On the Taiya Glacier we probed 1.5 - +2.4 meters. Approaching the glacier we found wind loading on the slope (approximately 30 cms over a hard layer) and felt some drum-like sounding snow. Slopes lower down to the chilkoot were hard and had small pockets of wind loaded snow. No corn and still very firm. Most areas that we could see appeared to be heavily wind affected. If you don’t mind skiing hard snow there’s probably a few weeks more skiing to be had in White Pass.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes, Steep slopes, Sunny slopes, Open trees.

Terrain Avoided

Convex slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Hard, Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Windy, Sunny.