I was up Little Sifton via Grizzly shoulder/bowl today under glorious Sunshine and cool temps. Another 5-10 cm.s overnight added to the previous storm snow making for some deep (40-60cm. ski penetration) tracksetting whenever you got tired of the usual straight up track on Grizzly shoulder. There was some heating of steeper sunny aspects – seen as moist snow on a steep SW facing traverse we did climbing out of Grizzly bowl.
Up higher you could feel old wind affect below the more recent low density snow but it wasn’t too thick where we traveled nor would it shear cleanly when tested. No wind to speak of today but you could see streaming snow off the higher peaks(over 10,000 ft.) in the am. I was surprised by the lack of recent wind effect in the area – but it did make for some great deep skiing. No recent avalanches observed short of some point releases (loose snow sloughs) in real steep terrain and no results from ski cuts or tests.
Lots of people in the pass and something to consider if there is any overhead hazard and people are above you – hard to say where people will ski these days.
Cheers,
Scott Davis
Mountain Guide