Mt MacDonell

AlexWray , Saturday 20th April, 2024 10:15PM

Today we climbed Mt MacDonell, and descended via the east face. We found no real difficulty crossing the river, aside from some cold toes. The water was less than knee deep. The approach basin has seen widespread wet loose and wet slab activity in its overhead within the last 48hrs, with numerous avalanches to side 2.5. None appeared to step down to a deeper layer. We did not observe and naturals occurring, and did not see any point relapses or pinwheels in action. By mid afternoon, there was approx. 30cm of moist snow which felt well bonded to the dry underneath. With no observations of natural activity through the day, and no evidence of persistent slab avalanches within the last 48hrs, this gave us confidence to drop in the to east face. We took care to stay off of distinct convex rolls, where triggering a wet avalanche felt more likely. At this time there was a thin semi-supportive crust formed on the surface, which made for some decent ski quality.