Christmas in April

Quick report

Demonic Pancake · Apr 10, 2024 · Glacier

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Quick report

Weather
warm, sunny
Ride Type
sunnySlopes, steepSlopes, alpineSlopes
Stayed Away
convexSlopes
Riding Quality
amazing
Snow Conditions
powder, wet, crusty, heavy, hard
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSnow

Lots of new snow yesterday in Rogers Pass and amazing ski in the alpine. We skied Christmas couloir today on the bed surface. It was a mix of soft refresh (10cm) snow over bed surface, soft, creamy and moist bed surface, and soft debris from yesterday's avalanche (see tab for details). Think fast and ideal groomer conditions :D We stomped 2 massive whumpfs on the moraines on the way to xmas, that echoed far and deep, but we didn't see any activity today. We some saw evidence of small skier triggered dry loose today from other parties (sz1.5 or considerable sluffing in STS ) Cheops north looked amazing and all the classics where skies. Some sluff was kicked down STS, no wide propagation. The snow was still cold and light on north aspects, but there was a crust down in Connaught at the end of the day and snow was getting slushy close to the highway.

Avalanche

Run Length
300
Slab Width
600
Trigger Type
natural
Wind Exposure
crossLoadedSlope
Avalanche Size
3
Start Zone Aspect
SE
Vegetation Cover
openSlope
Start Zone Incline
40
Avalanche Character
windSlab, stormSlab
Crust Near Weak Layer
1
Number Of Avalanches
1
Start Zone Elevation
2600
Weak Layer Burial Date
2024-04-09
Avalanche Observation
12to24hrsAgo
Weak Layer Crystal Type
stormSnow, surfaceHoarAndFacets
Start Zone Elevation Band
alp
Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
2024-04-10T19:00:00.000Z

Size 3 wall to wall on the whole ridge where Christmas couloir is storm snow is sitting on crust and was triggered during the Storm yesterday. The bed surface was reloaded with about 10-15 cm of new snow after the avalanche occurred. We boot packed up the the crown line and stopped there as there is still a considerable amount of hang fire before reaching the top. Crown shear test was breakable, unconsolidated and unreactive, but still not comforting. The reloaded snow bellow the crown was more reactive tho. Multiple run outs from the face and we measured 80cm at the bottom of one of them. The bed surface was still soft and not really icy, but well consolidated with little post holing. There was one other sympathetic avalanche near the fan of xmas of off Balu ridge