Rime city

Quick report

ellorie.mcknight1 · Feb 13, 2021 · Tutshi

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Observation photo 1

Quick report

Weather
sunny, cold
Ride Type
steepSlopes, alpineSlopes
Riding Quality
terrible
Snow Conditions
windAffected, crusty, hard

Crossed the south end of Tutshi Lake to access this zone, the lake already has thick ice despite freezing over not that long ago, thanks to the minus a million degree weather. We found touchy conditions at and just above treeline, with pockets of hard slabs popping but not propagating. Did observe some older small and shallow crown lines in wind loaded areas at this elevation. In the alpine, where it wasn't scoured to ground, conditions were either cement-like hard packed snow and sastrugi (yay) or an impressive ice-rime-facet mix (see photo) which skiied surprisingly better than anticipated. Better is relative though, lets just say we didn't get up high for the ski quality of the run. Cold temps and inversions continuing in the pass, sounds like we had less wind here than what others experienced further towards Summit.