FHR Traverse Attempt

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, sunny, warm, wet

Ride Type

mellowSlopes

Stayed Away

alpineSlopes, convexSlopes, steepSlopes, sunnySlopes

Riding Quality

terrible

Snow Conditions

crusty, hard, heavy, wet, windAffected

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionTemp

Attempted the FHR Traverse. Left the parking lot around 6:30 am temperature was around -2C (warmer than we expected) with zero wind. BTL snow was very crusty anywhere it was exposed to the sun or wind. Travel was fairly easy sticking to the skin track. Reaching the first slide paths on the east side of Mt Burstall there was debris from a very large slide that rant to valley bottom (size 3.5 /4?). We gave South / East facing slopes a wide berth. Around 9:00 am we started to see pinwheeling and wet loose slides coming off the south/east faces, frequency and size increased. Around 10 / 10:30 we reached the moraines below Mt Robertson (~2300M) temperature was approx +5C. We had expected Alpine temperature to be above freezing around 1PM. We noted heavy wind effect, decreasing visibility as we approached the glacier and increased natural avalanche activity (notably on shaded aspects). We pulled the plug on the day, and quickly made our way back to the car. We saw a very fresh size 2 slide that covered the skin track, and travel became difficult with warming snow that stuck to skins. Back at the car around 12:30 we could hear avalanches from the valleys above.