Highwood Pass

Quick report

Weather

sunny, cold

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

powder

Clear and calm -22C at parking lot at 9 am, warming slowly Pole probing & "mini pits" showed uniform snow pack on S & E aspects, with some "faceting" near ground on S aspects in areas. Windward on W aspects had areas with thin wind slab on top. Ski cut trigged top thin wind slab of size 1.5. Natural avalanches of similar size seen (trigger was from overhead cliff sloughs). Leeward on E aspects had more loading from previous days wind, good skiing. Some rough numbers: HS: 30 - 50 cm PS: 30 cm (in areas the sharks were nipping, so we skied very conservatively) Still early season, so line selection was key to avoiding rocks.