Elk Valley Exploring

Avalanche hazard is dropping so we went exploring! The big trick today was where to find good snow after all of last week's wind and rain? We did some virtual scouting (Fatmap and Gaia) and found an area that looked promising. It had to have a safe route up so we could dig down to check on the crust near the bottom before we committed to our line. We were rewarded with generally stable conditions and excellent snow above 1750m in sheltered areas. Feels good to be pushing into new terrain and skiing some steeps.

We witnessed small natural cornice fall out of extreme NE terrain. It wasn't windy or sunny at the time, so we gave corniced terrain a wide berth.

Test Pit, 2300m, S facing, 30 deg, HS 155 ETCX DTM 16 (BK) dn 110 under Dec 8 crust in facets See last photo for profile details