| In for a quick look at the area around Keith's hut. Winter is coming & appears to be off to a decent start.
Trail
Used the summer trail in both directions. Able to use skins above the rockwall section, tho still quite thin & sporty. An entry in the logbook from a recent party trying out the Winter route described a nasty bushwack of 4-5 hours. Didn't sound like a picnic!
Snowpack
Aprox 65cm at the cabin (1650m) and 130cm (2000m) in the Alpine on NE aspects. The bottom 1/3rd is composed of dense, recently moist grains of warmer snow. Resistance in the pencil - knife range. Above this is 60-80cm of 4 finger to 1 finger settled snow. On any sun aspect, a crust of 2-5cm had formed by the afternoon of the 14th. At elevations around 1700m, daytime temps (above zero) had produced a very slight MFC. Skiable, but present. Ski pen varied from 5-15cm. No windslab was present in the areas I observed, tho there were periods of moderate transport from strong downflow gusts off the glacier.
Coverage
Still quite early in the season and surface roughness (rocks & outcrops) was still quite evident, even up into the Alpine. Skiing anywhere in the trees was a gamble for the ever lurking, season ending super snow snake. Open areas with planar slopes provided the best skiing with least worries. A large weekend group had skied everything in sight of the hut, but had not ventured any further afield. Creeks are still quite open & care was taken in any crossing - snow bridges were seldom & weak in strength. The glacier had patchy coverage, with some slots still showing on convex rolls & wind scoured areas.
Stability
A couple of test pits & a few hand shears showed a strong bond between the old & new snow. One pit at 2000m, NE aspect had a repeatable Mod Compression test (20taps) down 20cm from the surface with a Sudden Planar characteristic. No other weaknesses were observed. No natural activity (visibility was limited on the 15th) noted. No reaction to ski cuts, nor were any cracking or whumphs observed.
Nice to get out & watch the early season snowpack forming up. The conditions had me skiing in quite a conservative mode, but enjoyable all the same. Take care out there & enjoy the rest of the season!
Dave Healey, ASG
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