Burstal Pass

Surprisingly good early season conditions up in Burstall Pass today. We were expecting a sparce, wind-swept slog up the flats followed by a rewarding facet wallow, and instead had calm conditions and a snowpack that carried surprisingly well, albeit thin and early season in character. Temps were -13 in the parking lot at 10am with very light east winds and trace snow throughout the day. It warmed up to a max of -2 with increasing (but still very light) snowfall through the day from the east. Reasonably good and supportive turns to be had in the bowl if you know how not to get treed out. Other parties ventured into the alpine but we had a later start and things do get darkish around 3pm, so no obs above treeline. The luge track off the upper plateau skied okay, and with lots of open holes in the canyon nobody seemed eager to temp that exit line just yet. No wumphing, no recent avy activity, lots of bunny tracks, no moose (or grizz) tracks but it still pays to be wary.