Pattison NW Face

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, cold, sunny, warm

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, steepSlopes, sunnySlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

crusty, deepPowder, hard, powder, windAffected

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionTemp

Skied the NW face - apologies for the bootpacking mess on the summit. We had no tracks to follow and checked out three possible entrances, opting for far lookers right - downclimbed into position after a belayed recon. I'm sure local badasses just ski off the top into this line but the idea made me throw up a little. First couple turns = supportive crust and sugary snow, then windpressed/scoured, then great powder over a crust in parts. No surprise wind pockets - it was all sluff management. Shoutout to the dudes that put in an uptrack/bootpack to the north facing line on the open face far lookers left - we gladly followed after the NW face. Similar snow conditions to the NW face. We experienced rapid warming on south slopes on the approach - cloud cover from 2pm onwards preserved a lot of the unconsolidated snow we found in the area. Very happy those skiers on Trorey were ok - we saw the slide from Pattison and it propagated wide.