Jupiter Traverse

<p>Skied the Mt. Jupiter Traverse today in hot, sunny conditions. Accessed Sapphire Col via the Asulkan glacier, snow was getting very wet and heavy by 11am (much more than we expected) and we observed a couple small sluffs off steep solar aspects. Consistently probed >280cm of finger/pencil firmness snow on the glacier. The bootpack is in straightforward condition and steps were still kicked in from before the last snowfall, we only occasionally post-holed through faceted snow. Surface hoar up to 10mm all along the ridge. There is a horn to sling for the rappel off of Leda— we removed some old chewed-up tat and left new cord behind. It could be downclimbed by bold individuals. The first pitch of Thorington was quite choppy from refrozen tracks/debris but gave way to glorious powder skiing down to valley bottom. There are two exposed crevasses to skier's left at the top of the run that are easy to see on the descent and avoid. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Sunny slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Snow Conditions

Hard, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Sunny, Warm.