Bottomless Sugarbowl

Quick report

esarhawkins · Nov 30, 2024 · Kootenay Boundary

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Quick report

Weather
cloudy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, denseTrees, openTrees
Stayed Away
steepSlopes
Riding Quality
amazing
Snow Conditions
deepPowder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSound

What a day at sugarbowl! We measured 165-185 cm total depth at 1585 m/N aspect, with just under 50 cm of storm snow. This sits on top another 70 cm of low density (fist) snow before you hit what we figured was the November freeze crust (~10 cm thick). The "crust" was decomposing and was only 4Finger hardness. Loose facets in our pit below the crust. We didn't see any slab activity up high, and had hard results in our column test with uneven breaks down 75 and 96 cm. This lack of slab properties is likely to change soon with forecasted warm and wet weather; we'll be paying close attention to how all this new snow consolidates and interacts with a potentially weakening Nov. crust. Had some localized whumpfs in dense trees below ~1200 m on the ski out. Super fun day out with great powder turns, and the lower section of trees didn't suck too much!