North face Storm Couloir attempt

Quick report

Weather

cold, cloudy

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, openTrees, denseTrees

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

windAffected

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSound

Attempted to ski the North Storm couloir today, turned around due to the choke being not filled in and fan was rocky in the run out. Decided to ski just above tree line in the alpine where we observed a highly variable HS with a lot of wind effect on all aspects. Alpine HS varied between 10-30 with deeper pockets of 40-50, There was a noticeable 5 - 10 cm stiff wind slab on West aspects Tree line HS 50-60 in more sheltered areas. Skiing was good in sections but quite hooky. One crack propagated about 5-6 m off skis in the alpine on a convex roll but settled. On the way out we boot packed up a smaller couloir which was wind loaded enough for some enjoyable turns. We also observed 1 size 2 avalanche on an eastern alpine face, looked like it was in the last 48 hours and went to ground but was hard to make out.

Snowpack

Cracking Observed

1

Site Elevation Band

alp, tln