Participants: Philip, Gerald, Ulrike, Evan, Gordon, Jenny, Carol, Gary.

Thanks to all who came out on my second probationary co-ordination.

Our destination for the day, Smuts Pass was chosen thinking that most of the closer to the road areas would have been pretty thoroughly skiied out, but driving down the Smith Dorrien it appeared like there were some closer in areas that were not totally used up. I suspect that the closure of the road north of Canmore for most of the week may have had a snow preservation effect. That and the 6-8 cm of new snow that fell over Friday, as reported in the avalanche bulletin.

During most of the approach to the pass the rain crust from last weekend was much in evidence, but soon after we crossed the last of the Avy paths and started climbing through the trees, the crust disappeared. The Avy forecast had indicated that this should happen around 2000m. Smuts is a windy area, and it's been a windy season, so it was also no surprise that when we cleared the trees, the wind slabs were fairly evident... But happily we had a goodly amount of fresh snow overnight and the winds were light. This resulted in light fluff on top of a firm base.

On our first ascent we popped up to the ridge just below the pass, but it was colder and pretty much snow free with exposed rock, so we quickly beattled down to the shelter of the larches. We did our first run on untracked powder (ankle to mid-boot deep) and then ate lunch at the bottom. The conditions were too good to stop at just one and so we enjoyed another 2 runs (or 2.5), trying out different areas of the slope both in, between, and at the edge of the trees. All that was left was the relatively quick 1h 20 mins descent to the road, picking our way back down to the valley bottom with some good conditions through the trees to creek level. Thanks to everyone for a great day!

Group at the end of the Valley.

Uptracking Smuts

Gary is Stayin Alive!

Ulrike Descendant!

Jenny Searching for Pow

Race to the Bottom

Gary Note the Excellent Tele Form!

Gordon New Skis do like the Trees!