West Bowl, Three Fingered Jack

On Sunday, March 17, we skied a couloir on the West face of Three Fingered Jack, followed by a short lap on a NE aspect off the East offshoot of the South Ridge (we’re relatively new to the area, not sure of the official names!). The overarching theme was spring conditions on all aspects. We started from Santaim SnoPark at 5am and toured up to the South Ridge, arriving there about 1hour after sunrise. Temps were hovering freezing overnight, leaving a “sometimes” breakable crust all the way up. Ski crampons were a helpful tool for the unbreakable sections (mostly shaded pockets). Unsurprisingly, the east side of the ridge had large cornices but the morning breeze blew from the East. We did not observed any cornice fall throughout the entire day or any cornices on the west side of the ridge after the past few days of easterlies. We skied/ traversed low to cross the west bowl, leaving a wide berth for the overhead hazard that is the West face. The breeze was cool and snow was still firmed up at 9:30am. We observed debris from D1 and D2 wet slides from days prior (photos attached) in the West Bowl. We then booted up the couloir, reaching the top at approximately 10:40am. Conscious of the sun, our decision to continue up even though late in the morning was due to the very firm conditions underfoot. The crust was breakable by ski boots/ crampons but supportive to skis all the way to the bottom of the West bowl until about 11:40am. The first sun hit the top of the south-facing overhead wall of the couloir at about 10:00am, but we observed little debris fall while in the couloir. We expected ski conditions in the couloir to be bad, but that was probably an understatement. Full of frozen debris from the overhead walls during the sunny days prior, it was a fun line but we wouldn’t recommend to a friend on the basis of ski conditions (photo attached). The supportive crust that was slowly softening made for some good turns in the bowl below the horrendous couloir. Deep runnels ran down the bottom of the West face (photo attached). At approximately 11:40am, we skinned back up to the south ridge, hugging the shaded treeline all the way up. The crust was still supportive, even in unshaded terrain. We decided to ski down a NE facing aspect off of the East offshoot of the South ridge at approximately 1:00pm. At this time, winds were cold and had picked up to moderate. To no surprise, this face was sun affected, penetrating about the thickness of a ski. We avoided convex rolls, rocky/ shallow-deep transition zones, and steered clear of terrain traps as we expected the potential for wet loose releases. We didn’t trigger any sizable slides but our sluff was wet and heavy. For our egress, we stayed low in the burn and avoided slopes above 20 degrees as it was now after 1:30pm and scorching hot down low with little-to-no breeze. Ski penetration was ankle-to-boot deep of slush on the low-angle E and SE aspects, and a little less on the N aspects. Overall, great day to be out and took a little longer to warm up than we had expected.

West Bowl, Three Fingered Jack

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