Gold

Good snow in the trees above 1600m and on shady aspects. The rest was crusty on the surface up to our high point of 2000 m. Above 1800m it was thin enough that it wasn’t too noticeable on the sled. Sun felt hot but air was cool enough that crusts were still intact by the time we were headed out around 3 but we weren’t on steep solars. Previous days’ loose dry and loose wet visible but the only new activity we observed was small point releases out of extreme cliffy terrain.

Lots of evidence of small loose wet and loose dry avalanches out of steep east to west aspects, suspected to have run naturally the previous day. Snow was running loose dry in top 10cm with skier traffic on north aspects, no cracking or propagation. When we went onto westerly aspects below 2100m the surface was crusty. Cornices were relatively small and well-supported.

The up track is in good shape, the main chute has been skied out, wind and sun effected. Good base with a thin sun crust. Some untracked powder in a few spots. The picture is from last spring this time, be aware the run out on the up track can be significant.

Attempted McPherson from the north but the clouds and wind had other plans. The wind effect in the alpine is substantial and has moved every last bit of transportable snow. Good skiing below tree line. There were ten or so other tracks in the womb today.

Amazing day in the womb with a big crew (7 people). Great skiing all the way down the womb. Minor slugging on steeper slopes. RP on a CT and a RP on a ECTP down 40 storm snow. Both failures were quite resistant and mostly low density snow on top of the wind slab. Probed an HS of 250 on the fingers ridge and ~250 at the top of the womb. 2 people had skied before us so there are quite a few tracks in the womb now but still good skiing! Also, the up track up to the ridge of the fingers is amazing. Kudos to whoever put that in.

The buried melt freeze crusts, now down 120 & 135cm at this location, are characterized by stiff to very stiff snow above & below (1F-P), and the layer itself (5-10mm thick) is very weak (F-4F). The crystals continue to decompose, however they are not mixing a significant amount with the surrounding layers, ie the layer is still very apparent in the snowpack, and can be seen clearly on the pit wall. There was no reactivity to compression or shovel shear tests on this layer. At the base of the storm snow (since last Tues, aprox 50cm down), there was moderate clean (SP) reactivity on top of a windslab. The snow above this layer is very low density (F), and had no signs of slab characteristics. Considering the deeper weak layers, even with the lack of reactivity to snowpack tests, I have low confidence in the snowpack here, and see a clear low probability high consequence issue to consider.

I like this snow. It was the type of snow that when you make a turn, you disappear into the abyss and get lost in hyperspace. 30-35 new cms on burnt knob today. Lots of fast running sluff up to size 1-1.5. On solar aspects there was a sun crust that created a nice surface for the new snow to slide on. Temps warmed up as the day went on. Watch out for the nordic mob down at the base. 400 Nordic skiers will make you feel considerably slower than you already are.

No visible or audible signs of avalanche activity. Stopped half way down for an equipment adjustment, had a ski off and standing on the snow pack, base was solid.

Spent the day sledding up to Mt Hall. Great powder riding where untracked. Dug a test profile at roughly 2100 m on a Northeast aspect, with no significant results observed. Generally, low-density powder snow overlays a firm, well-consolidated mid-pack. While probing we could feel the November facet layer 20 to 40 cm above the ground.

Started in the morning few degree below 0 with ice pellets precipitation. Turned to rain after a few hours and stop a bit after 12. A rain crust start to form below 1300m. Above 1300 was just really wet and sticky. Surprisingly, the snow felt pretty stable and felt like it was bonding relatively well. No sign of cracking but one relatively loud whumpf. We stick to low consequence terrain.

Nearly 30 cm of fresh snow in the last 48 hrs

We did the loop around Mt Mara. The logging road was in good shape for driving to snow then sledding to the cabin without any large whoops. The day remained cold with light wind and a persistent cloud over the mountain. Quick alpine travel conditions with 10 to 20 cm consolidated or wind pressed powder over a hard crust. We looked for wind slabs but didn't find any evidence of them in our riding area. This gave us confidence to ride steep alpine terrain.

Remote triggered a small convex wind loaded roll. About a 30cm crown on mostly east aspect. Big temp swing in the afternoon, play safe!

Fresh tracks into the Womb. Pleasantly surprised the find the ridge with limited wind affect. Wind affect was slightly more pronounced at the entry to the Womb but snow was soft and stable. Fantastic ski conditions down to about 900m where things hardened up from recent warming / rain.

South facing slope about 40° CTE 2 recent crust layer @ 20cm CTM 3 persistent slab @ 80cm Saw no signs of avalanches in the area, however we kept to conservative terrain

Didn't see any signs of slides where we rode. We did do a column check. It broke away 2nd hit from the elbow. Approx 2.5ft. Can see the weak layer. Can feel multiple crust layers when we probed. 230cm total snow depth. Top 1" layer breaks very easily