Grand Daddy Couloir

Quick report

Weather

cloudy

Ride Type

steepSlopes, openTrees, alpineSlopes

Stayed Away

convexSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

powder

Followed skin tracks from Mosquito Creek Hostel until tree line. River Crossing was frozen and passable. Alpine had evidence of cross loading and couloir fan had some large avalanche debris which seemed quite old. Our uptrack went up lookers left of the couloir runout. Snowpack felt stable with no signs of weakness, other than some crest-like areas to lookers left where facets above Nov 5 crust gave way easily - we stuck further right which was firmer. Nov 5 crust 40-60cm deep. Bootpack began well with a fairly supportive layer in areas that had been sloughed out. At the fork around half way it became less supportive and much wallowing was had. Above this point there seemed to be a bit of a wind slab developing and we noticed a slide crown running vertically on rock above. Constant spin drift and two loose dry slough slides to size ~1-1.5 came from above. Snow depth in couloir ~110-140cm. Riding the couloir was epic. Snow felt supportive but slough management required. The fan rode perfectly but lower down rocks were lurking. Poled through the boulder field and continued through the trees to valley bottom which had surprisingly good coverage and rode very well. Mosquito Creek car park very icy and we could not get our rwd van out.