Shovelnose Shenanigans
Quick reportnarciso.rafa611 · Dec 9, 2023 · Harrison-Fraser
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy, foggy, windy
- Ride Type
- convexSlopes, cutBlocks, denseTrees, mellowSlopes
- Stayed Away
- steepSlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- crusty, powder, windAffected
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound
Parked on shovelnose creek road at around 650. Coverage was thin on the way up but able to ski down by the end of the day from the new snow. Went into the trees around 1350m and snow was crusty and chunky but new powder was good. Went into subalpine and snow was softer but sitting on top of a thick, wet crust. Witnessed 2 small size 1 slab avalanches on the way up on steep (50 ish deg) slopes, naturally occuring but quite close to skiers. Went up a mellower slope and was fine and stable enough, but felt quite touchy. Some shooting cracks on steep slopes but not enough snow to be overly cautious. Skiing was soft powder on alpine, stayed on mellow slopes and obvious wind dumped pockets of crust/deeper powder. Crust held up so no breaking through, even on stronger turns. Tree skiing was crusty but surprisingly good! Shark evading on the road. Overall a very good day out!
Avalanche
- Trigger Type
- natural
- Wind Exposure
- leeSlope
- Avalanche Size
- 1
- Start Zone Aspect
- NW
- Vegetation Cover
- openSlope
- Start Zone Incline
- 50
- Avalanche Character
- stormSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 2-5
- Start Zone Elevation
- 1800
- Runout Zone Elevation
- 1800
- Avalanche Observation
- moreThan48hrsAgo
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- alp
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2023-12-09T21:20:00.000Z
2 small and similar avalanches.