Surprise Pass - A surprise!

Had a great day skiing surprise with a bonus of 15-20cm of cold dry snow at the top of the run. Run will be fairly tracked out as a party of 9 was behind us. Top and middle of run were great and the bottom was quite crusty and temperature affected.

Temperature was -8 at the car in the morning (1750m) time: 0715 Ta -7.1 at 2000m under Fairview east face, time: 0815 Ta -4.0 at 2350m under Fairview Bowl (on way to surprise) time: 1000 Ta -6.3 at 2450m bottom of Surprise bootpack, time: 1115 Ta -0.4 at 1750m bottom of the run at lake level, time: 12:40 HST info under snowpack

HST 6cm at parking (1750m) HST 10cm below the bowl on Fairview (on the way to surprise) at 2350m over a crust (semi supportive) HST 12cm at the bottom of the boot up surprise, not too bad of a crust 2450m HST 15-20 at the top of surprise pass! Over a soft supportive crust (barely a crust) made for really great skiing! 2500m

Saw lots of evidence of wet loose avalanches (sz1-1.5) from previous days and some new loose dry (sz1) from the overnight storm snow.