Begbie Shoulder

Lots of obvious clues yesterday on the skin up Begbie Shoulder. Above ~1600m we observed numerous small slabs that had occurred naturally overnight. They seemed to have been triggered by treebombs, failing on convexities and were generally ~30cm deep failing within the recent storm snow. As we approached treeline we triggered several similar slabs, but at treeline they were up to 75cm deep in lee windloaded areas. They propagated up to 15m wide, however we were avoiding larger slopes and it is likely that on bigger terrain the slabs would have propagated wider. We were cautious in our terrain selection and group management, avoided convexities and ski cut slopes where appropriate.