[MCR] Commonwealth Creek and Tryst Lake

Back in Commonwealth Creek today doing a run on the Tryst Lake chutes and finally down to Commonwealth Creek via the first southern aspect avalanche chute,  which we entered well below the usual start zone. There was more snow than expected this morning with 25cm at valley bottom and up to 40cm at ridgeline – all sitting on a rain crust that is capping a layer of moist snow. Except for some sloughs and a small wind slab in the biggest of the Tryst Lake chutes we didn’t see any avalanches. Where we skied today the new snow was quite low density and hadn’t formed a slab, which made for excellent skiing with face shots (for the shorter members of our team anyways…..). Given the winds earlier in the day and likely overnight I suspect there are places (especially close to ridge line and in cross loaded features) where the new snow did form a slab and the bond to the rain crust would have to stand a harder test to skier triggering than what we experienced today. There was just a faint hint of sunshine at the very end of the day today. Temps were ranging from -13C to -6C which should preserve the good skiing quality for the time being.

 

Thanks to two jolly Park Wardens for setting a nice track to Tryst Ridge!      

 

Cheers,

Jorg Wilz

Mountain Guide (ACMG / VDBS / IFMGA)

 

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