Cirque peak

<p>Went up the Helen creek to Helen lake and Cirque peak. Dropped down the North couloir (read rappelled down). And skied back to the road via the drainage NW of Cirque Peak. The trip in to Helen lake we noted one east facing slope with storm slabs forming up. A few small cracks. We had one wumph on a south east low angle slope near the lake. Heading up Cirque peak the snowpack is thin but we were able to keep skis on most of the way. Against all forecasting odds the the sun came out and baked the South face. Thankfully we were descending via the north side. The North couloir has very little snow in it and we pushed our 70m of rope to the limit to get to a skiable spot. The north glacier had 20 cm of powder and excellent skiing. The trip out we took the drainage (NW of Cirque) to the road which was mostly breakable suncrust on top of 10-15 cm of heavy powder the whole way back to the road. We did see a large avalanche come off of the north end of Crowfoot around 2pm.</p>

Terrain Ridden

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

Terrain Avoided

Convex slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Heavy, Wet, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Sunny.