Nosseeum Summit Ridge bowl

Quick report

Hamish McPhail · Feb 22, 2022 · East Side 93N

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Quick report

Weather
cold, sunny
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, steepSlopes, sunnySlopes
Riding Quality
Good
Snow Conditions
crusty, powder, windAffected

Skied the SE facing bowl off the Summit ridge. Mixed bag of wind affect and sun crust on the way up. Found an isolated pocket of 20cm thick wind slab on a small sw facing pitch just above tree line that produced shooting cracks and other isolated pockets of 5cm wind slab in the alpine on the same aspect. Seemed to be developed more from wind affect than actual loading. All of this was sitting on a pronounced sun crust. Transitions to boot packing several times because skiing would require ski crampons. About 15cm of unconsolidated snow on top of the supportive crust in the bowl. Dropped a section of cornice off the ridge and saw no propagation it only broke where we shovelled it and nothing released from below. Skiing was quite nice on the supportive crust with a bit of pow to ski. Skied the couloir as an exit into the valley and it was absolute dog water. Nothing but Shitty crust and small pockets of grabby wind affect.

Weather

Sunny and extremely calm at all elevations today. Started at -33 in the parking lot and warmed up to -17 on the summit ridge.