Aussie Couloir Approach
Snowpackseamus.boydporter · Jan 1, 2023 · Duffey
Quick report
- Weather
- sunny
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- powder, windAffected
Dug a pit on the fan and backed off skiing the couloir after easy failures occurred. We found quite different results in the alpine than what we had found at lower elevations around treeline.
Snowpack
- Obs Type
- point
- Site Aspect
- SW
- Test Fracture
- resistant
- Site Elevation
- 2300
- Ski Penetration
- 15
- Test Initiation
- easy
- Foot Penetration
- 70
- Test Failure Depth
- 50
- Site Elevation Band
- alp
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- other
After tree skiing around Keith's hut and Vantage trees our group went up Anniversary glacier to check out the conditions on Matier and Joffre. Pit dug on the fan of Aussie couloir: 1st result, 5th wrist tap: 5-10cm down resistant planar (storm snow) 2nd result, 1st elbow tap: 50 cm down resistant planar The sliding surface 50cm down was 3-5cm above a denser layer of snow, which matches the depth of the melt/freeze crust present at lower elevations. We found this layer to be much more reactive above the glacier than at or below it ~ 2200m. See MIN from Sunset couloir. Aussie is pretty boney, but one could have gotten up and down.