Feb 17-20 bonnington traverse
Quick reportkelly.h · Feb 19, 2026 · Bonnington
Quick report
- Ride Type
- mellowSlopes, denseTrees, openTrees
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes, steepSlopes, alpineSlopes, cutBlocks
- Riding Quality
- amazing
- Snow Conditions
- powder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSound
Visiting from Vancouver. Had a wonderful four days doing the Bonnington traverse. Took some conservative paths and lines due to conditions. Serious whumphing in flat meadows areas, elevation band 1600-1700m ish. Felt this in the way to Grassi and on the way to Steed, but not on the next few days. Travelling along some flat meadows (from Grassi to steed) noticed a huge whumph and shooting cracks 5m from skis. It felt like the entire meadows had collapsed. Conducted a few snow tests - see summary/comments under snowpack tab. Visiting the area so not super familiar with the snowpack - did my best guess at the layers given prior research and what we’ve experienced. Skied mellow slopes, lots of powder to go around. No instabilities noted on our laps. Typically skied +/-100-200m above and below each hut, give or take.
Weather
- Storm Start Date
- 2026-02-16
- Storm Snow Amount
- 30
Total storm accumulations from Feb 16 to Feb 19 ~25-30cm probing on the uptrack. Winds on the traverse were calm to light all throughout. Mostly southernly.
Snowpack
- Depth
- 235
- Obs Type
- summary
- Site Aspect
- SE, SW
- Test Fracture
- sudden
- Site Elevation
- 2000
- Test Initiation
- hard
- Test Failure Depth
- 45
- Site Elevation Band
- tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- facets, crust
Feb 18, 4:40pm Rutsbloch test, dug to 100cm @ 2060m SE aspect 30deg 3/8 clouds, Calm Snow depth 220cm R5 result down 35cm Feb 19, 4:45pm above copper hut Flurries, 1c/h @2018m 26deg slope Southwest aspect 235 cm deep snowpack, dug pit to 105 cm CTH 30 down 45 - suspected feb 7 layer, no movement on the first crust (Feb 13 suspected)