AST sled course above Bryant Lake

<p>AST sled course. we travelled around a bit and went to the end of Bryant Lake to take a look. The glacier at the end of the lake on the north side was partly exposed to ice. Observed 2 x size 2 slab avalanches on NE aspect about 1/2 way up the lake. Not sure when they occurred but the one furthest east looked fresh and looked like it started with a cornice failure. We took a look at the snow in a couple of locations. Upper lake area the snow depth and quality was highly variable. Pockets of powder with wind slab either exposed at surface or buried under about 15 cms of powder. Average snow depth at our location was 87 cms. As we approached the edge of the first fraser chute we were down to 5 to 10 cms of snow depth with bits of exposed ground and found lots of hollow drumming sounds as we poked about up there. The snowpack was pretty interesting. Mostly consisted of 5 distinct layers starting at the top with 10 to 15 cm powder, then wind slab, then a 4 cm (!) layer of surface hoar, then wind slab, then basel facets (depth hoar). We expected the worst but the surface hoar was not reactive. We did get hard CT results on the basel facets but there was some ground vegetation and the failure was uneven. We did find significant faceting around the trees and rocks and it was easy to fall deep into the bonzi tree wells. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes, Sunny slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Snow Conditions

Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Sunny.