Heliotrope Ridge

Weather

brendan.wakefield · Dec 8, 2018 · West Slopes North

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Quick report

Weather
cloudy
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes
Stayed Away
steepSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
OK
Snow Conditions
hard, windAffected, powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound

Highly variable wind affected snow; blown surface powder on top of a very firm wind slab. Observed woom

Snowpack

No formal snowpack tests, but did get a 1m slab of pencil hardness snow to break off where on faceted crystals where I witnessed the crack (in photograph). Cracks shot out about 5m on a convex roll, but we only witnessed cracking at one location on the tour. Snow was very soft BTL, looked like 10-20cm of mostly sugary faceted particles covering a crust.