Paddy Peak and Glacier

Quick report

Weather

windy, sunny

Ride Type

steepSlopes, alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

powder, crusty

On Friday we skiied the southeast facing slopes off Paddy Peak summit onto the glacier. On the Paddy glacier and alpine plateau below, a few cms of packed powder was relatively well bonded to a firm (wind hammered) layer below. A South wind increased substantially throughout the day on Friday and the lighter surface snow was being transported and redistributed, especially higher up. We did not experience any whumpfing or shooting cracks nor any significant slabs on our way up or down the plateau/glacier. On steeper southeast facing alpine slopes we did observe that the softer upper snow layer was not as well bonded to the underlying hard layer and also noticed a few hollow sounding spots- we managed our ascent and descent with caution. The paddy glacier is well covered and the area is holding more snow than in previous years, no crevasses or sags were visible.