Aborted at Surprise Pass
Snowpack1robert1campbell · Jan 9, 2022 · Lake Louise
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy, cold
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, convexSlopes, steepSlopes, openTrees
- Riding Quality
- ok
- Snow Conditions
- windAffected, powder, crusty
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow
No signs of recent avalanche activity. On approach trhough trees Older debris deposits on major slide paths were still evident but presented no obstacles. At and above treeline the crust below recent snow was supportive 95% of time. Wind slabs from recent snow were sluffing on 40deg slopes sliding upon the crust formed from recent sustained cold period. Thursday 6th was last report and there was no obvious trail cut anymore. All blown / filled in with recent snow. Ski pen 20cm at treeline. 30cm on approch to pass. Started late at 10am hoping others would have broken trail and ran out of time/light. Interesting group decision to turn back 200m from pass just at base of steep slope below bench at 330pm. Defaulted to lowest risk tolerance in group and destroyed a nice uptrack skiing back down in the dark through the trees. Sorry but we did set a nice uptrack 95% of way. Someone get up there. Gut says it would be good to great.
Weather
- Avg Temp
- -22
- Min Temp
- -17
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedLight
- Blowing Snow
- light
- Sky Condition
- brokenClouds
- New Snow24 Hours
- 30
- Storm Start Date
- 2022-01-08T03:04:00.000Z
- Storm Snow Amount
- 30
- Temperature Trend
- falling
Snowpack
- Depth
- 200
- Obs Type
- summary
- Site Aspect
- SE
- Site Elevation
- 2400
- Ski Penetration
- 30
- Test Initiation
- none
- Foot Penetration
- 100
- Site Elevation Band
- tln, alp
- Surface Conditions
- crust, newSnow
Treeline skipole basket pen 30cm and handle pen 1 to 2m with some drifting here and there. SE aspects on approach had variable coverage due to wind transport. Recent extended cold had formed a 1-2 cm crust under recent snow that was fragile enough to interfere with breaking trail on some aspects. Short laps on various SE aspects made for awkward turns due to inconsistent ski penetration. Ski cut a low risk convexity before entering valley 400m short of pass at 45deg with no result other than surface sluff on top of this thin crust.