Esplanade

Spent January 7th to 14th at Fairy Meadows Acc hut. A good week of skiing. Janaury 13th the fresh snow got top heavy and we scaled back and reduced exposure to steeper terrain. We observed a few dry loose avalanches that stopped in upper path or start zone during the week. Ski'd over a small sz 0.5- 1 likely caused by pillow failure but other then that did not observe any avalanches during our week. Stability was surprising good and our group ski'd both alpine and treeline with excellent ski quality at treeline with limited snow coverage in the alpine features that are not glaciated. There is significantly less facetted snow in the snow pack then in the rest of the region. Treeline has excellent snow (1.8m+) and significantly deeper then the alpine. January 10- 12th we ski'd 40 - 55 degree slopes at treeline with no signs of instability. Temperatures increased from -8c mid week to just below zero on exit on Saturday morning. No avalanche activity on flight out observed. Glaciers are still very thin, lots of exposed ice and rather sad looking compared to previous years. Winds were calm for most of the week with only a little wind in the alpine. Skies overcast with Monday having 5-6 hours of scattered cloud. Safe skiing and riding everyone.

Skied near the esplanade. Abundant wumpfing between 1800 & 2100m on both north, east and south aspects around treeline. Storm snow on south aspect at TL (2000m) was slabbing up and we were able to kick off small pockets running on 10-15mm SH down 35-45cm. Moderate to stong winds at tree line and above, with winds shifty, varying from SW to NW. Evidence of recent (<24h) slabs in Lee and crossloaded features TL and in ALP. South aspects BTL had developed a thin suncrust by the end of the day. Some evidence of loose wet sz 1 naturals on south aspects BTL.

SA Size 1, 25cm crown depth, 35m path, NE aspect, 2015m elevation, steep supported terrain at 40°

Great gambol at tree line today, had a chance to sample test slopes. Skiing still super fun, and felt confident rolling into some supported steeper rolls. Did encounter several isolated wind slabs and crusts at surface on different aspect in open and lower angled terrain. Great skiing below tree line... No fresh signs of activity, but still travelling wary of mid-December crust 80-100 down... Happy New Year!!!

More slack-a-daddy loops today, on Rampart Peak, S/SW, 2300m. Temps down 5° or so, calm winds from W. Not much overnight transport. Long distance viewing of much higher peaks appeared to have significant transport from the west. Great skiing, nothing moving, so that’s a win! Boot top to knee deep on consolidating pack. Still avoiding large open slopes, but isolated supported rollers skied nicely. We did run into some isolated wind slabs forming at ridge line, 10cm+, not an issue today, but noted if/when fresh arrives or crystals form. Going with 3/2/1 where we are, but pleasantly surprised at how calm things look in our zone.

Quick laps at TL at Sentry Lodge this afternoon. Clear sky during fly in, we noted many 1.5+ naturals on NE/E slopes in the alpine, likely wind loaded soft slab with wide start zones. Afternoon started clear and still after a morning of heavy gusting from S/SW. Degenerated to heavy gusts from many directions just before sundown. Significant wind transport of past pulse of snow, buried the foot path from lodge to heli pad with a boot pen of 45+cm (as example) since 10:00 am. Some definite isolated booby traps developing out there... we skied sheltered lines, and burned calories breaking trail with ski pen of 60cm on fresh trails, 40+cm on well established skin tracks.

-2C when we left the parking lot. Snowing S2 most of the morning. 20 cm ski pen on the old uptrack. 30-40 cm ski pen in other places. 10-15 cm soft slab noticed first thing on the way up but deepened to 20-25 cm at higher elevations in the afternoon. Few SZ 2 naturals noticed in extreme terrain right off ridge top. Loaded features had over 50 cm ski pen on the way down. Tons of faceshots were had. 0C when we got back to the parking lot.

Column test nearing treeline 1700m failed easily sudden planar down 77cm (CTE 9 SP @ 77cm). In open terrain at 1800m there were spooky sudden collapses and crown lines visible on E facing ribs of the N face. We decided to stick to riding trees

Our group spent 4 days skiing out of the Golden Alpine Holiday Sunrise lodge. Skiing was excellent for the whole trip. Snow was bonding to the Halloween crust and the late November crust better than expected. Two snow profiles dug yielded similar results. Both pits were south facing and between 2250 and 2300m. Both pits yielded CTM 11 RB on the late November crust (bottom of crust) and CTH 23 SP on the Halloween crust. Towards the end of the week we observed large rise in temperature in the afternoons and sun affect on south facing slopes. On Thursday there were numerous pinwheels and small point releases on south slopes as well. Skiing was still excellent on sheltered north facing slopes.