Whitewater Backcountry

Quick report

allenclimbs · Feb 25, 2019 · North Rockies

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Quick report

Weather
cold, windy, sunny
Ride Type
steepSlopes, sunnySlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
alpineSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
Amazing
Snow Conditions
powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSnow

Exceptional weekend in the Whitewater Backcountry. Skied Friday and Sunday in the Five Mile Burn (towards Larch Peak) HS was anywhere from 190-210cm. Significant ridge top winds on Sunday morning from the East, typical of the last few weeks. Thin areas were suspect as we neared more exposed areas nearing ridge top with a few settlements. Lots of snow getting distributed into soft and hard slabs adjacent to ridge tops. Of note we skier controlled two Size 1 Wind Slab avalanches (Five Mile burn and Goat Slide) within 50m of ridge top on steep slopes, things quickly improved to low density snow (better) below. The sun didn't get a chance to really heat things up do to the wind keeping things fresh (likely close to -20 in exposed areas) so the west facing slopes stayed cool and awesome! Great cold smoke weekend!