Connaught Creek Massacre

Quick report

Weather

warm, sunny

Ride Type

sunnySlopes, alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes

Stayed Away

steepSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

wet, crusty, powder, heavy

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionTemp

TL;DR: Connaught Creek is unrecognizable and requires a few boot packs across slide path debris. Snow is really nice above 2,200m. Video Peak, VCR and Bruins Ridge ripped though Hospital Bowl all the way to valley bottom. We made our way up Connaught Creek with the objective of heading towards Video Peak. Travel was very slow through the valley and required us to boot pack through the avalanche debris from all three slide paths that ripped through the valley bottom and in some cases up the other side. We followed an old skin track up Hospital Gully and made our way to Hospital Knob. Travel was made easier with 5-7cm of new snow wet on a crust. Upon reaching Hospital Knob, we realized that Hospital Bowl had slid and noticed a crown that had propagated from Video Peak to VCR and across to Bruins Ridge all the way down to valley bottom. Made our way up through Hospital Bowl whole trying to avoid the debris the most we could all the way to the bottom of Video Peak. We decided not to climb all the way up and skied just below video Peak. The snow was great up top and got heavy and wet as we made our way down. The exit through Christmas Trees was made easier by the new wet snow on crust. Another two boot packs across slide path debris was necessary to exit.

Weather

Wind Speed

windSpeedLight

Blowing Snow

none

Sky Condition

fewClouds

Temperature Trend

rising

Precipitation Type

none

Snowpack

Obs Type

point

Site Aspect

E, SE

Site Elevation

2450

Site Elevation Band

alp

Surface Conditions

newSnow

Avalanche

Run Length

1000

Slab Width

400

Trigger Type

natural

Avalanche Size

4

Slab Thickness

80

Start Zone Aspect

SE, E

Avalanche Character

wetSlab, stormSlab

Number Of Avalanches

2-5

Start Zone Elevation

2500

Runout Zone Elevation

1500

Avalanche Observation

moreThan48hrsAgo

Start Zone Elevation Band

alp