Just got back from a week of skiing at Fairy Meadows with Felix Camire and the ACC group. We got about 110cm of new snow through the week which meant less time up high than normal, but fantastic ski quality!
Snow depth on the Gothic and Granite Glaciers was generally above 3.5m with a few wind swept locations around 260cm. More shallow spots on moraines and ridges than I remember from previous years, but 270cm at the hut.
We traveled fairly cautiously all week especially as the snowfall amounts increased. We stayed off steep South aspects due to a buried sun crust which produced some impressive settlements. North aspects in the alpine seemed better with the major concern being wind loading and then the large amounts of new snow later in the week. We also found a few open glades in the trees where a buried surface hoar layer down 60-80cm was still reactive to ski cutting.
This morning was quite impressive as we observed numerous avalanches up to size 3.5+ both from the hut area and on the flight out. Many were running on steep South aspects as the day heated up, but some triggered large releases on North aspects sympathetically. We also saw some large slides on steep North aspects failing after being wind loaded overnight.
From what we saw it is definitely time to tread cautiously until things settle out a bit. Fortunately there were plenty of face shots to be had on lower angle terrain while we watched the avalanche show.
IFMGA Mountain Guide
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