Mt Field

Quick report

Weather

sunny

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, convexSlopes, mellowSlopes, openTrees, steepSlopes, sunnySlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

crusty, hard, heavy, powder, wet

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionTemp

Went to Mt Field on Saturday via the standard route; shortcut did not seem to have adequate coverage. Late start and slow going, the snow remained cold and dry above 2000m, and we summited around 3:30pm, following 4 other skiers. 5cm of wet settling snow over a hard crust at the bottom, increasing to around 25cm dry loose on top of crust near the top. During ascent, observed two size 2 avalanches coming off of the east side of Wapta Mountain, and one size 2 off the west side of Wapta. No pinwheeling or wet snow in the alpine on descent at around 4pm. Decided to ski a small two-turn 40-ish degree convex roll with a safe runout close to the headwall; got a large sluff to slide off the crust. Skied some convex slopes and rolls 30-35 degrees lower down that all stayed put. Mostly powder, with some breakable crust on the slightly more south-facing sides of the benches. Wet and grabby starting at treeline. Yoho Valley road had some bare patches, very slushy but good going skiing out.