Asulkan: Tree Triangle (Tuesday Obs before recent storm)

Quick report

Weather

stormy, windy, cloudy

Ride Type

convexSlopes, steepSlopes, openTrees, mellowSlopes, denseTrees

Stayed Away

alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

deepPowder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSnow

Dug a profile below the tree triangle on the up track to Asulkan Hut. Snow depth was 305 cm (probed) and investigated to a depth of 150 cm. Identified a potential surface hoar layer down 140 cm, was unreactive to deep tap test. Otherwise well consolidated intermittent layers of storm snow above, ranging from Fist to Pencil resistance. Compression tests yielded hard, resistant planar fractures down 40 cm and a full rutschblock triggered a full block release on the first jump (RB3) at the same depth. Previous storm snow (10 cm) would release on steeper convex rolls in gully or exposed lines in the tree triangle. The tests were done Tuesday prior to strong gusting Southerly winds overnight, strong enough to hear in the hut and knock ski’s over on the patio. This wind scoured exposed features and ridges. We skied out Wednesday on 30-40 cm of fresh and light powder that had soft slab cracking on the same steeper “mellow” convex rolls. I suspect there’s a monster dump of fresh during the day Wednesday and Thursday. Few observations of natural avalanche activity except for high alpine crown lines above cliff bands. The west lateral moraine visible from the skin track had a surprising crown line 200-300 m wide that ran a short 50-60 m. We didn’t investigate but suspect it was recent wind loading. Cheers! -CJ