SNOWNADO!

Quick report

Frozen Pirate · Feb 8, 2019 · Premier

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Quick report

Weather
cold, windy, cloudy, sunny
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, convexSlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
steepSlopes
Riding Quality
Good
Snow Conditions
windAffected, powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound

Wind was the name of the game....holly heck did it blow. The open treeline and alpine areas are smammered by the nw-n-ne winds. Sustained moderate to strong winds in windward aspects all day and ridgetop winds would almost blow you off of your sled. Moving through an alpine feature, we suspect we remote triggered a size 2 windslab while traveling 100m away (below the feature) on a bench below the steep NE facing aspect. 80m wide and ran for about the same with a max estimated crown of 25cms. The open alpine terrain has no fun factor what so ever due to the wind affect. Thick slabs, soft pockets and the abundant rock hard wind waves made the suck factor super high in the wind exposed alpine terrain. We searched for sheltered treeline terrain (where the SPAW is issued...) and did notice shooting cracks, and small slabs on the side of short steep convexities released about 25cms down but nothing big and the riding here was very good. We chose to avoid any exposure to larger features or terrain traps and treeline and enjoyed the day on the mountain. Ride safe