Haines Pass: Afternoon Delight!

Quick report

Weather

windy, warm, sunny, cold

Ride Type

steepSlopes, sunnySlopes, openTrees, alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, convexSlopes

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

windAffected, powder, crusty, hard

Spent a few days in Haines Pass: March 6th: GF Trees Arrived early afternoon, was partly cloudy that transitioned to clear blue skies, light winds and temperatures rising near zero (-1.5 degrees around 3pm). Snow was heavy up to ~800m and became drier and little more wind affected to the summit at 1000m. Natural loose avys off sunny S to SW steep slopes. Decent powder riding in the trees. The sun was setting on the descent and the snow was already forming a breakable crust. Probed over 300cm below treeline. March 7th: Marinka Hills Area Winds picked up the previous night. Waited for a window for it to ease (which didn’t happen). Went out in the afternoon again to the top of Marinkas Hill and decided to traverse further towards the next range. Clear, HS 240cm at 1500m, -6 degrees with strong winds gusting from the NW. Snow was very wind affected. Skied mellow slopes. Cornices were breaking off on the east side of the highway below three guardsman. March 8th: Nadahini Glacier Began around noon once the winds finally calmed down. Clear blue skies, light winds from the N-NW when we left the vehicle. Glacier showed no observable crevasses. HS 200cm at the col around ~1800m. Winds were calm gusting to moderate at top coming from the S and were moderate gusting to strong at car from the NW still. Variable snow on ski down. Avoided leeward slopes as we observed some cracking below skis and size 1’s from wind on the uptrack.