Big day above Atlin Lake
Quick reportdrew.lyness ยท Apr 2, 2022
Quick report
- Weather
- cold, sunny
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes, steepSlopes
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes
- Riding Quality
- Good
- Snow Conditions
- powder, windAffected
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound
The wx forecast looked better inland so we decided to eschew the passes & explore up above the north west end of Atlin Lake. Route finding was fun & adventuresome with little info to go on. Fought our way into the alpine & found good skiing on packed powder & variable wind effected surfaces. Observed a na. avalanche to size 2 that looked to have run in the past few days from wind loaded steep terrain on a south east facing slope around 1600m, & had propagated 40m across the slope. Whilst looking for a possible entry for our line from the summit ridge we triggered a significant woomph with shooting cracks on an isolated east facing convex roll. The combined red flags and flattening light encouraged us to take a slightly more conservative line down on scoured slopes until we were clear of steeper start zones. Around 1200m of pretty good soft turns on a fairly big burly mountain just a few km over the border into BC. Great views down the lake.