Smutwood-Birdwood col

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, sunny

Snow Conditions

powder, crusty

Snowshoed Smuts pass up to Smutwood-Birdwood col. Snowing and overcast down at trailhead at road in the morning. Tapered off to light snow and overcast as I gained elevation. About 10cm of new snow. Good support for snowshoeing. Occasionally breaking through crust but not too often. Snow depth was 235 at 1900 m and 200cm up at col at 2350m. Consistent tight packed middle layer from 30 or 50 cm down to the rain crust layer. Multiple crust layers above and sandy grainy faceted snow below. Hard ice crust layer was down 185 cm at 1900m and down 100cm at 2300 m. Sun broke through and clouds cleared off around 2:00pm and snow below 1900 m started feeling sticky and saturated through the top crust layer making it a little less supportive. Was glad it wasnt sunny until the hike out. Some pinwheeling on steeper north flanks of Commenwealth. Observed some loose sluffs off northeast aspect of Birdwood. Start zones at top of Smuts east face shows evidence of lots of movement of top layer. See pic Cornices on Smutwood were still intact, as seen in pics.