Churchill Slide Paths

timsjohnson , Monday 4th March, 2024 10:50PM

We minimized overhead hazard by staying far climbers right along the trim line to 1800m when we entered the trees between the north and south path, which are are well spaced and make for easy skinning with no overhead hazard rather than staying in the path. We had numerous whumpfs and shooting cracks and were cautious on any steep terrain, even below tree line.

ECTP 29 down 70cm above the Feb 3rd Crust on 4F facets. HS 155cm at 2100m treeline. Mid pack is 1F. Lower snowpack is F depth hoar.

Two Natural Avalnches from the Feb 29th storm on Churchill. The north path went size 3 to mid avalanche path running from ridgetop. It looked like it ran on deep persistent facets and depth hoar. The south path went size 2 just to the lookers left of the tree triangle ridge. This looked like it ran above the early Feb layer. I even found preserved surface hoar to size 3mm attached to an ice layer in a quick fracture line profile.