Fairview & Surprise Pass

Quick report

Weather

warm, cloudy

Ride Type

steepSlopes, sunnySlopes, alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

terrible

Snow Conditions

crusty, hard, windAffected

Fairview & Surprise Pass - Went up and skied down Fairview Mountain before continuing the loop of Surprise pass. A thick solar crust on Fairview made it nearly impossible to skin, thankfully we brought boot crampons expecting this and it was a very easy bootpack straight up with them. It would have been a brutal ski. -2c at the summit after a -14c start. We hiked past the summit and skied a bowl above the surprise pass route and it was OK at best - some sun crust and windslab mixed with some softer snow that probably came from Europe with the winds last week. We then met up with surprise pass route - easy firm and fast travel. It's a better idea to bootpack to final ascent to the col. The ski down was absolutely terrible. Wind hammered disaster skiing with some *surprises* on scary fast bulletproof crusts. A fine day out but not because of the ski quality that's for sure. A reset is needed. Found generally stable avalanche conditions everywhere save for some small newer windslabs, everything else was old and well integrated.