Stayed off the Face

We headed to the Hurley to investigate the snowpack around the Face/Birkenhead... Staging was anywhere between 7 km and 9 km, but proper snow coverage doesn't begin until just after 9 km. We sledded to 1500m then transitioned to skis. The area got about 10 cm of new snow within the last 24 hours on top of 50ish cm from the weekend. We dug a profile on a WNW aspect in an open tree area, our result was: ECTN30 down 55 on a storm snow layer. This spot might be quite wind-loaded, in other spots the weak layer might be shallower. Wind was light to moderate with significant snow transport which could cover our tracks within an hour. We triggered some size 1 wind slab/ storm slab avalanches while ski cutting and observed a natural release size 1 wind slab on the lee side of cliff area. We enjoyed some nice mellow treeline storm skiing.

size 1 natural release of wind slab on lee slope in steep terrain. size 1 storm slab/wind slab in westerly aspect triggered by ski cutting

Profile in open tree line; ECTN30 down 55 on Storm snow 10 cm of New snow from the last 24 hours on top of 40ish cm of rounded grains. With 1 cm of Storm snow crystals with an other 60 cm of progressively dense rounded grains on top of the melt freeze crust from Mid February