Surprise pass
Quick reportcolinhoglund13 · Apr 13, 2025 · Glacier
Quick report
- Weather
- warm, sunny
- Ride Type
- alpineSlopes
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes
- Riding Quality
- ok
- Snow Conditions
- crusty, powder, hard
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionTemp
Decent “spring” day up surprise. The fresh snow improved ski quality, but the snow under the surface layer was hard and bumpy. Ski crampons we’re not needed, but one of us had them and it made going up the pass much easier.
Avalanche
- Trigger Type
- natural
- Avalanche Size
- 2.5
- Start Zone Aspect
- S
- Avalanche Character
- looseWet
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Avalanche Observation
- 12hrsAgo
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2025-04-13T18:30:00.000Z
At about 1230 the walls on the uptrack to the pass began to shed snow signalling that stability was about to deteriorate. Sun is high enough to hit north side, but not enough to affect ski quality by 1230 that day. On the opposite side there was a wet slide (pictured) from the morning before 1100 as we did not hear it from the back side of surprise or while ascending. Surprise north slope had a large crown wall from avalanche likely much earlier in week as debris was rock hard.