Observation Date: 02/19/2019

Route/Location:
We toured back to Bass Lake and ascended N. Bass peak, skiing its east face. We also skied the “groove tube” (West facing couloir between Bass and Kootenai creeks) and then bounced bowls back East, climbing South aspects and skiing East bowls back to Lappi Point, where we dropped North back to Bass Creek.

Weather:
It felt like deep winter all day with cold temps, cold snow and windy conditions once we gained some elevation. The sun poked its face out occasionally, and it was snowing and blowing from the West as we exited.

Wind:
Once past the Pinball, winds picked up considerably. Skiing across Bass lake, we fought a stiff headwind (20-30 mph gusts) and encountered significant gusts blowing from all aspects of the compass throughout the day, but by the end of the day, it was blowing and gusting predominantly out of the West. Plenty of snow being transported near ridgelines and loading leeward slopes.

New Snow: 6-12″

Avalanche Activity:
The only problems we encountered were restricted to wind effected slopes. My partner triggered a small wind pocket skiing off of the east face of N. Bass peak (4-8 inches deep, 50 ft wide, ran 10 ft) and we each triggered numerous wind pockets down the length of the groove tube, which faces due West and appeared to have been loaded from below, we intentionally ski cut these and skied to and fro safe zones. Other than that we found stable boot – knee-deep powder on all aspects, unaffected by wind.

Other Comments:
The skiing in the Bass Creek vicinity is all time! Get it while it’s good.

Observer: Ned Gall