Weather The week started off with freezing levels up to 2600m, with moist snow on all aspects except due North above 2200m, during this time we found excellent overnight recoveries. On Wednesday April 15th, it started snowing and blowing, burying the melt freeze crust up to 30cm of snow in lee areas and at ridge tops.
Snowpack & Avalanche Concerns At the beginning of the week we were concerned with Feb 10th and Basal weaknesses, after noting a size 3 on Mt Matier N Face which is suspected to have slid on the Feb 10th and also stepped down to Glacial ice. Throughout the week and after more observations we gained confidence and were only concerned with loose wet avalanches due to daytime warming and solar effect. On Wednesday when it began to snow, our main concerns where soft slabs developing in the Alpine with Mod SW winds, and by Friday April 18th slabs were noticeably more touchy and few skier accidentals size 1-2 were observed from other parties.
Hazards With daytime warming cornices failures had been a concern all week, although we also had been concerned for specific areas where a cornice could trigger the deeper instabilities with large load (shallow rocky areas more likely with cornice failure). This spring the glaciers have less snow than in past years, with generally around 300cm's, but this can be variable with shallow areas on wind exposed convexities.
General Comments At the beginning of the week we skied aggressive terrain to 45 degrees, but by the end of the week with all the recent storm snow we became more cautious and skied more moderately angle terrain. We found great corn skiing on solar aspects, but with the recent refresh of up to 30cm’s new snow it will take a few sunny days for this come back into shape. Currently there is some great powder skiing on polar aspects (NE-NW) above 1900m.
Have a safe and fun rest of the spring.
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