Totally Awesome Tecumseh

Today we skied up towards the NW face of Tecumseh. Our goal was to investigate the effects of last weekend's warm spell on the snowpack, and gauge how the new snow is settling on top. We dug at 1800m on a north aspect, there was 40 cm of well settled new snow that hasn’t seen too much wind effect yet. Below the old snowpack is moist top to bottom and well settled. The new snow is insulating the moist snowpack and refreeze is happening slowly. Up to 2100 m the general structure and moisture content is consistent. Our avalanche related concerns were limited to the new snow. As the wind began to pick up at noon, we observed moderate to strong wind loading in alpine ridge-top features. In the few hours we had out there we observed several natural wind slab avalanches up to size 1.5. Some paths in very steep terrain produced multiple avalanches due to continued wind loading. Cornices were observed actively growing today and are looming overhead in specific areas. In sheltered steep trees we found very good quality ski turns and observed no signs of instability under our skis. By avoiding steep wind loaded features, and limiting overhead exposure to steep alpine features and cornices we were able to enjoy some great quality April pow! This will be the South Rockies team’s final day of field operations for the season and we are stoked to end it on a banger! Thanks to the CrowSnow Riders for keeping up with access challenges this season, and making it possible to enjoy the beauty of winter in the pass!! See you all next fall!