Pope’s Glacier Winter Solstice

Went up Narao glades to Popes glacier. Lots of new deadfall along the road and in the glades, even more were noticed on our way down. Funny snow through the glades but good snow across the moraines and up the glacier. Noted some light sloughing in steep unskiable terrain and light wind transport sporadically. Skied from about 100m vertical below the col as the snow was starting to feel more wind affected and time was running short being the shortest day of the year.

Snowing S-1 off and on when not in the fog layer. Surprisingly the fog was diverting around the hanging valley. Wind would go from almost calm, gusting to moderate. Plus 1 degree back at the car around 1600hrs.

From Lake O’hara parking lot to 1800m the snow was moist. Above that the snow was dry but variable levels of supportiveness. Especially between 2100m-2200m the snow had slab properties overlying facets. It was in this elevation band that we noticed significant cracking and whumpfing. A small slab undercut by the skin track slid a few cms at one point in 26° open treeline terrain. Although it did not move far, it had cracked extended about 4m behind me. In the alpine the snow became supportive with new snow on top and skied quite well. Height of snow (HS), was highly variable averaging 90cm on the glacier.