Big day above Atlin Lake

Quick report

drew.lyness ยท Apr 2, 2022

View on map

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.

2 photos