Tent Ridge Area

sonofwil , Tuesday 12th March, 2024 5:30AM

Overnight snow on the Smith Dorien ranged from 5-25cm. About 10 cm near Engadine lodge. Early morning was mostly clear and light wind. Easy trailbreaking, 5-10cm on supportive crust. Only avalanche activity was sloughing or small cornice failure from steep unskiable NE face. No whumphing but there was a hollow feel to the snow. Dug a pit at just below treeline 2300m, E aspect, sparse trees, approx 30 degree slope. HS 130cm. 13cm overnight snow on top of a 3-4cm slab/crust, pencil density. New snow bonded to crust moderately well. Below that, consolidated snow for about 40cm, then the Feb 2 crust. More consolidated snow for 15cm then facets. CT E6, RP on the solar crust. Feb 2 crust hard to trigger. While uptracking on steep sidehills we would slide down a metre sometimes on the crust, hard to even kick through. Did not go higher than the pit, stuck to flatter terrain close to the trees. Started snowing at 10:30, accumulated 5 cm. Spooky out there. Stay safe.