Mount Patterson-Middle Couloir

Quick report

Weather

cloudy

Ride Type

steepSlopes

Stayed Away

convexSlopes, alpineSlopes

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

powder, crusty, hard

We skied the Middle Couloir off Mount Patterson. Our main concerns were windslab and the rain crust being a poor bonding surface that would produce loose dry avalanches based on the snow density of the new snow fallen Wednesday pm to Friday am. This couloir is fairly sheltered and steep at the top. The day was truly extreme: extremely good ski quality and extremely bad ski quality. The BTL and TL range from 2cms of coverage to 40cms and were truly heinous to navigate. We took our skis off on the way down through these elevation bands and walked at it would be safer from an injury standpoint. The only good thing about those elevation bands is the 2 river crossings were frozen. The couloir had released during the last rain and wind event and there is rock hard debris with 2-5cm on top at the exit and running half the path. Within the couloir the conditions from 1950m-2300m were great powder conditions. There was some recent loose dry sz1 activity within the couloir out of the steep upper slopes. The last 50m of the couloir are facets on rocks with a snow depth of 75m. Though we topped out we sidestepped the better half of the top 75m. There was some sluffing while skiing but did not run fast or far. There was no to light wind and it was overcast all day at hovering around -8C. I’m not going to tell anyone how to live your life but I would wait for more snow and reassess avalanche conditions then.