Emerald gully and slide path

Quick report

Olga Erasova · Dec 11, 2020 · Waterton Lakes

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Quick report

Weather
cold, foggy, sunny
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, sunnySlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
steepSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
Good
Snow Conditions
crusty, powder

Skied skier's right gully of the main SE slide path from just below 2400m. Shoulder had thin pow on sun crust. East facing side of the gully had best snow - 30cm deep powder. Main slide path had sun crust on skiers left. Exit via left gully was fine with widespread crust from below 1500m. The main slide path needs a lot more snow lower down. Storm snow felt non conhesive and bonding well where we uptracked and skied. We went up via Hamilton lake trail to avoid uptracking the slide path below many other groups in the area. Observed many groups going up in the slide path as we were about to drop down and as other groups skiing down above them. Saw an interesting uptrack right in the gully terrain trap. New Surface hoar started to form. Observed few Na sz1-2 from steep rocky terrain mostly point releases with one slab solar triggered probably yesterday.

Snowpack

Hard results on hand sheer tests with irregular break on shaded and sheltered aspect 30cm down on probably SH