Marten or Martin ?

Quick report

Ride Type

mellowSlopes, cutBlocks

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

powder

With the avalanche hazard rated at Considerable, and lots of Recent Avalanches in surrounding regions, we made a trip plan today to keep ourselves out of avalanche terrain, and headed into the Rolling Hills / Leach Ridge / Marten Ridge area. We found up to 50 cm of soft snow over the Feb 3rd crust, with a slight bit of wind stiffening in some areas, but all in all a great day of ripping around in the lower angle rolling clearcuts. We encountered no signs of instability; saw no new avalanches; had no results in two separate snowpits at around 1800 m, and were unable to trigger slides on the (many!) small road cut-banks we cut. The day started cool at -12 at Coal Creek staging, warming to -8 at 1800 m by early afternoon. Winds were calm to light through the day, with no snow transport. We saw the sun occasionally, but there was no warming of the snow surface.