Still spring conditions in the Tantalus Range

Took some gear for a walk today up the Sigurd Creek trail to have a look at the Tantalus Traverse. A good number of trees are down across the trail between 650 and 850 m elevation. All can be bypassed with some leg scratches and lost time.

We were able to travel on snow from 1300 m up to 2150 m on the N ridge of Pelion Mountain. The top 30-40 cm was isothermal above 1600 m by mid-day and we witnessed several natural avalanches (glide slab and loose wet up to size 2.5) off the E face of Ossa Mountain.

When we gained the ridge on Pelion and got views south towards Tantalus and Dione we observed significant cornices on the ridge and additional evidence of fresh loose wet avalanche activity.

We opted to retrace our steps down Sigurd Creek.