Pre-storm Syncline Exploratory Tour

Quick report

Weather

sunny

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, convexSlopes, openTrees

Stayed Away

steepSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

crusty, powder, windAffected

We set out on a exploratory tour up the gully to climbers left of Syncline S1. The trailhead was dry, so we started boot-packing directly from the car. Were able to transition after ~ 1km, but quickly switched back to boot-packing due to low coverage across the stream in the gully. We were able to transition and skin once exiting the gully and onto the North-East face we set out to ski. We observed ~5cm of fresh snow on top of the sun crust. Our goal was to find some wind-loaded snow to ski (which we did find, around 15-20cm deep in places). We also wanted to better understand the new snow / old snow layer before the 20-30+cm we are expecting this week. On the skin track we saw poor bonding between this new snow and older-crust. The crust layer was "punchable" in the trees and shaded aspects. Observed some wind slab when above tree level, and decided to transition and ski from there. The wind-loaded terrain was easily releasable on top of the old snow, and will be problematic as new snow loads atop it. We saw some small cracks on this terrain. Great day overall. Made some nice turns, but a super tedious/slow approach at low tide made this tour a lot longer than anticipated.

Weather

Avg Temp

-2

Wind Speed

windSpeedCalm

Blowing Snow

none

Sky Condition

clear

New Snow24 Hours

5

Storm Start Date

2026-02-14

Temperature Trend

rising

Precipitation Type

none

Snowpack

Obs Type

summary

Site Aspect

E, NE

Site Elevation

2050

Ski Penetration

2

Foot Penetration

10

Cracking Observed

1

Site Elevation Band

alp, tln

Surface Conditions

crust, newSnow, variable