Haines pass obs

Quick report

Weather

windy, warm, sunny

Ride Type

sunnySlopes, openTrees, alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes

Stayed Away

steepSlopes, convexSlopes

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

hard, windAffected, powder, crusty

General Haines Pass observations from Sunday-Monday. 3 to 5 cm new snow Saturday night. Winds did a lot of damage to the snow surface in the area around Haines Pass with a mix of wind pressed, hard windslad and windcrust found on all aspects. As noted in the Whitepass avalanche forecast, wind were generally from the north but did switch from a variety of direction during this outflow event (east north west). Some reasonably good snow was still found at lower elevation near the border or on some sheltered small zones in the alpine but general rule of thumb is wind affected. Although the sun was out and it somewhat felt like spring, still very much a winter snowpack in the mountains. A sun crust could be felt under the new snow on solar aspects (south and west). Of special interest, 3 large avalanche to near ground were observed in the Nadahinni area (size 1.5 to 2.5). All 3 had similar characteristic: between 1700 and 2000 m elevation, steep north facing rocky (shallow) features, likely triggered by cornice fall. It might not be the time to ride such lines this year, but something to watch for if you are hanging out close to similar slopes in the upcoming days/weeks.