Bonnington traverse

Quick report

Weather

cold

Ride Type

mellowSlopes, sunnySlopes, denseTrees, openTrees

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

crusty, powder, windAffected

Bonnington Traverse, Jan 29 - Feb 2. // Day 1: Bombi to Steed. Observed tree bombs and variable crusts on our east aspect descent off Grassy N4. Wind affected snow in the alpine. Cold temps around -20C day and night. // Day 2: Steed hut area. Two column tests close to Steed Hut, one on a NE aspect and one on a south aspect. NE aspect column had two resistant planar results down 20cm and 30cm, CTM(13) and CTH(22). The persistant slab problem showed up clearly 80cm down with a sudden planar result, CTH(24). The pit location was in a lee location at 2100m, HS 225cm. We skied short sections to 35° anchored with trees, and lower angle open features. On the southern aspect, we found the layers of concern at similar depths to the NE aspect, but with resistant results in the hard range, despite the more pronounced layers. // Day 3: Steed to Copper hut. Our E, NE, and even true N descents from ridge tops again had tree bombs and variable crusts. We saw evidence of large (sz 2) avalanches that were likely more than 2 days old in north facing terrain as we traversed east along the ridge above Rush Creek. Triggers may have been cornice fall and entrainment from steep rocky terrain at the top of the ridge. On our descent to Erie Creek, we found high quality snow on N to NE facing terrain between 1500-1800m. Great uptrack to Copper hut to end another cold day. // Day 4: We explored north facing terrain off the east ridge of Copper Mountain. Again, tree bombs in terrain immediately off the ridge, with riding quality improving in lower angle, sheltered terrain. Sadly, one ski in our party decided to break and increase the adventure factor for the remainder of the trip... ski straps and a piece of scavenged lumber did the trick though! // Day 5: Exit to Porto Rico. The first part of the ridge traverse toward Territory Peak went smoothly with good visibility and calm to moderate winds. Route finding up to the top of Territory was tricky, with sections of exposure/convex roll overs to climbers left and cornices to the right. We bootpacked part of the ridge where heli skiers had packed down the steepest sections. Higher up there was enough soft snow to skin the remaining sections of ridge. Dropping down from Territory, we had lunch and scoped the route between Colony and Empire. It looked even more technical/exposed than what we had just navigated, so we opted for a low route. We skied crusty south facing slopes into a west facing bowl, as well as some mellow glades with excellent snow quality. This lead to a natural ramp and then a ridge back to the west ridge of Empire. Some more crusty skiing to Barrett Lake and finally the long slog on a bumpy sled trail to Porto Rico finished our day. // Overall we were glad to have stable weather and good visibility, and the temps only got warmer! // Hut beta: Steed hut coordinates: 49.346103, -117.447612 Copper hut coordinates: 49.38687, -117.38553 Also, we managed to get Copper Hut warm enough to wake up the frozen house flies hibernating inside - somewhere around 20C is the magic number...