Banana Chute

Quick report

Weather

cold, cloudy

Ride Type

steepSlopes, alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

powder

We skied Banana Chute on Fissile Peak Monday. There was a 10-20 cm layer of fresh snow on top of a supportive crust. The windward side of the mountain was extremely wind-scoured down to the scree. The leeward slopes (NE) were filled in and in excellent condition for skiing (see picture for difference in snow cover between aspects). When the first skier dropped in, we observed dry loose non-cohesive sluffing of the 10-20 cm of fresh snow on top of the crust layer, which ran to the bottom of the couloir. We saw evidence of a large size 3 natural avalanche that ran to valley bottom, likely on a weak buried persistent layer and occurred in the last big avalanche cycle this month.

Weather

Avg Temp

-10

Wind Speed

windSpeedLight

Blowing Snow

light

Sky Condition

brokenClouds

Wind Direction

SW

New Snow24 Hours

10

Storm Start Date

2021-01-24T08:00:00.000Z

Temperature Trend

steady

Precipitation Type

snow

Snowpack

Obs Type

point

Site Aspect

NE

Test Fracture

resistant

Site Elevation

2280

Test Initiation

hard

Test Failure Depth

0

Site Elevation Band

alp

Surface Conditions

newSnow

Results from our pit showed the fresh snow sitting on top of a wind affected crust with well bonded deeper layers. 10x hand and 10x elbow hitting the snow column did not result in a fracture in the deeper layers. Hardness went from 1-finger to 2-fingers with increasing depth.