Dome Glacier area

Avalanche

Meshwell Boschmann · Dec 2, 2020 · Glacier

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Quick report

Weather
warm, sunny
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, convexSlopes, steepSlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
sunnySlopes
Riding Quality
Good
Snow Conditions
windAffected, powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionTemp, avalancheConditionSound

Went to a high point of 2200m on the Dome Glacier. Except for the most windloaded features like the Dome Roll and the immediate Lee (north side) of the Cleaver, conditions were 5-10cn on widespread 10-30cm thick buried windslabs and over old debris from a SZ 2.5 avalanche that had seemingly (crown fully buried) initiated all along the north flank of the Cleaver. Given these generally poor conditions, we opted for more sheltered lines on the N-NE facing moraines. The best skiing was found below 2000m with 30-40cm HST over a well settled midpack. One whumph was felt while dropping into our last run from 2000m just below a cliff but no cracking observed, a buried windslab was suspected. The last 150m to valley bottom had very large surface hoar cristals resulting in a lot of sloughing for those last few turns. We observed multiple loose dry and moist SZ 2 avalanches from the steep solars on Abbott/Afton and on Avalanche. The snow remained dry all day on the shaded aspect we skied as the temperatures remained below freezing. The solars seemed to be a very different story. An excellent day out.