Swiss couloir

Weather

Alex Gosselin · Feb 11, 2021 · Glacier

Quick report

Weather: sunny, cold
Ride Type: openTrees, convexSlopes, sunnySlopes
Stayed Away: alpineSlopes
Riding Quality: ok
Snow Conditions: crusty, windAffected, powder
Avalanche Conditions: avalancheConditionSound

Headed up hermit yesturday with swiss couloir in mind. As soon as we got out of the tree, making our way up the morraine, we noticed significant snow transport on ridge top. As soon as we got up on swiss glacier there was moderate wind gust from a bit all over the place but predominently from NE. As we were getting closer to swiss we observe significant snow drifting from the top down the couloir. As we bootpack up it, we start noticing variable wind slab right from the bottom. It got thicker (~10-15cm) as we went up and was sitting on a lot of faceted snow underneath. We did a few test to found out it could be trigger relatively easy, could potentienly propagated as it was becoming harder as we went up and see some shooting crack. So pull the plug quarter of the way and turn around. Heads up, Pretty touchy condition in the alpine right now no time to let your guard down!

Weather

Avg Temp: -25
Wind Speed: windSpeedModerate
Blowing Snow: moderate
Sky Condition: clear
Temperature Trend: steady
Precipitation Type: none

Averall really cold day up hermitt yesturday. Not so bad in the sun down the moraine but freezing when you got up on the glacier with significant wind gusting.