Last 3 days touring off Blackcomb

Dave Sarkany , Tuesday 29th November, 2022 12:30AM

Snow depth is marginal. 80cm- 150cm.
Shooting Gallery off Disease Ridge skis ok with care in the tress below the exposed ridge. Decker Creek/Meadows is very thin. Boulder tops are everywhere. The pass at the head of Decker Creek is mostly rock and hard ice but workable without taking skis off. We went uphill here.
As can be expected flat meadow and glacier seems to ski the best.
Blackcomb Gl and Horstman Gl ski really well. The crevasses here are filling in and are seen mostly as holes.
The big surprise today was the finding the route to Spearhead Col blocked by a 3rd class rock step. Its is currently a skis off scramble. (It looks like the glacier on the E Col side just melted out and left a 5m drop.)
The Spearhead Wrap Around Route looks really bony, but the Spearhead Glaciers crevasses looked reasonable filled in. (Viewed in the shade from Spearhead Pk in the later afternoon today.)
The last couple of days started with extreme S winds and then switched to NW and then more recently NE. Wind slabs on N aspects where active yesterday but I didn't see new slab active wind slabs on E or S aspects. I heard of a skier accidental in the steeper E facing area just N of E col. To describe the pack very loosely: 10-40cm of F surface snow above a variable hard ice crust. Below this are multiple ice crusts and rounding faceted layers.
It is possible to ski almost everywhere with care, crevasses are an active hazard and hard to see. Rocks are the biggest issue.
Blackcomb Gl ski road is in good shape.