Cold pow in N facing terrain, solar triggered avalanches on S aspects

Quick report

Weather

warm, sunny

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, openTrees

Stayed Away

sunnySlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

deepPowder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionTemp

-19C at 8 AM in the parking lot rapidly warmed to near -5C at the valley bottom. South-facing slopes reacted to the warming and the first intense solar input of the year by producing several large avalanches (up to size 2.5). Winds were light today but the recent wind effect was evident in the alpine. We saw several recent windslab and cornice avalanches in north-facing terrain and encountered isolated pockets of soft windslab at treeline. In sheltered features, ski/sled penetration was between 40-50cm with roughly 20-30cm of low-density new snow sitting on facets. We managed the hazard by avoiding any exposure to overhead south-facing avalanche paths even when that meant battling through tight trees on the sleds and choosing sheltered north-facing terrain to ski.