Keith’s Hut

With the intention of continuing toward Vantage Peak, we traveled into the Duffey area and approached via Keith’s Hut. We began skinning at approximately 1300 m, where snow coverage became continuous. The river crossing on the approach was more complex than expected and required careful route finding, but was manageable. Snow conditions were excellent, with deep powder present throughout the tour. In sheltered terrain, we found excellent tree skiing with soft, low-density storm snow. As we gained elevation, strong winds became increasingly apparent. We observed wind-affected snow and the presence of developing cornices along ridgelines. Due to strong winds and cornice hazard in the alpine, we chose not to proceed toward Vantage Peak and instead limited our travel to sheltered terrain below ridgelines. No avalanche activity was observed during the tour. Overall, conditions provided very good skiing while maintaining conservative terrain choices based on current observations.