E Ridge Elgood

Generally nice riding conditions on lower angled slopes and in more shaded terrain where the 12-20cm of new snow was sufficient to keep you off the most recent crust.

The day started out sunny but clouds quickly filled in along the ridge crest decreasing visibility. Light winds were felt on open slopes, but no active wind transportation was occurring. The overnight storm had left 12-15cm of new low density and unconsolidated snow at all elevations.

There was 12-15cm of new snow over the old surface. On shaded slopes this was generally SH and/or an additional 5-10cm of decomposing fragments and the recent rain crust. On sunny aspects, this was a 3-7cm melt freeze crust. The new snow was very light and unconsolidated. I could trigger small sluffs even on very short slopes. In the near treeline (>1900m), wind drifts and thin wind slabs were observed up to 25cm deep. Some of these small pockets cracked but did not avalanche on small test slopes.