Fraser

Quick report

Weather

sunny

Ride Type

convexSlopes, alpineSlopes

Stayed Away

steepSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

powder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSnow

Took advantage of the clearing trend to climb & ski a relatively protected south facing line, whilst remaining weary of recent loading and wind deposition following the pulse that came in throughout Wednesday. As forecast, we found around 30cm of low density storm snow with little sign of wind effect below 1400m. Above this elevation band we found the new snow was still unconsolidated - with some soft slab beginning to form around localized / wind exposed terrain features. Quick hand pits revealed HST was overlaying a variety of unreactive buried windslab, crust and rounding facets until the higher elevations, where wind effect was widespread - all sastrugi and stiff wind slab - on lower angle slopes. Temperatures were -7 and wind was light - approaching moderate on the lake towards 4pm. Generally prevailing s/w but occasionally switching to come in from the north for short spells. We noted a significant avalanche on the north face of Fraser (see photo) - seemingly a point release that ran loose to size 2. Presumably this popped out during the recent loading. There were also signs of small - size 1 - point releases that had run short distances on our southerly line, mainly off steep and rocky terrain during the recent storm. These point releases were limited and had seen little enthusiasm in terms of propagation or step down potential. Skiing was exceptional.

Weather

Wind Speed

windSpeedLight

Blowing Snow

light

Sky Condition

brokenClouds

Wind Direction

SW

New Snow24 Hours

35

Temperature Trend

steady

Precipitation Type

none

The wind did seem to come in from the north for short periods, but generally remained prevailing s/w.

Avalanche

Trigger Type

natural

Avalanche Size

2

Start Zone Aspect

N

Number Of Avalanches

2-5

Avalanche Observation

24to48hrsAgo

Start Zone Elevation Band

alp

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2020-12-25T17:00:00