Hilda Hero
Avalanchesagath · Dec 4, 2021 · Icefields
Quick report
- Weather
- cold
- Ride Type
- mellowSlopes, alpineSlopes, steepSlopes, denseTrees, openTrees
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes
- Riding Quality
- amazing
- Snow Conditions
- deepPowder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab
Spent two days (Sat Sun) at Hilda. Saturday had 20+ people out. Some groups skied the front (road) side, others the trees (creek) side, and a couple groups including ours skied the larger alpine slope at the end of Hilda ridge, all the way down to the moraine edge. One group went straight away for it, but we started out on easier/gentler slopes closer to the front side until gaining confidence in the snow pack. Zero stability issues noticed by us, or among parties that we chatted with, and visual checks of their tracks. The snow was Dry Smoke A+++ calf deep powder, with a solid base down ~30cm. It felt like a layer at times (which gave a great push off when skiing) but we couldn't detect it with pole pokes or hand shears. I would suspect the storm came in right side up and set up great with the cold snap that followed. Sunday we saw one group of 10 going up Destiny ridge to the peak/ridge top. Judging from the turn quality of tracks coming down it wasn't great snow over there would be my guess. On our way out Sunday we ran in to another party that skied Parker Ridge main face above the parking lot. They said the stability was good, but the snow wasn't that great.
Weather
- Max Temp
- -24
- Min Temp
- -15
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedLight
- Sky Condition
- clear
- Temperature Trend
- steady
- Precipitation Type
- none
COLD
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 700
- Slab Width
- 700
- Trigger Type
- natural
- Wind Exposure
- downFlow
- Avalanche Size
- 3
- Start Zone Aspect
- NE, E
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Avalanche Character
- deepPersistentSlab, stormSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2500
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 2000
- Avalanche Observation
- moreThan48hrsAgo
- Weak Layer Crystal Type
- depthHoar
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2021-12-04T17:00:00.000Z
Parker Glacier (under Mt Athabasca) avalanche to ground some time likely during the storm cycle. Started from steep terrain, stepped down to ground and ripped out the whole face.