Took the Gondola up to Sunshine and toured to the first summit of Twin Cairns via the back side on Sunday, March 12. We managed to find some good powder turns in areas not wind affected but the entire backside and most of the steeper pitches facing the ski hill are heavily wind hammered. We stayed on slopes of 25 degrees or less as we didn't like the fact that there is obviously a soft slab that has developed from the recent snow and wind.

The snow cracks easily around your skis on anything wind affected. Got a few whumps on the way down. In areas not affected by the wind we found three easy clean shears in the snowpack in the upper 35cm. The slabs in the upper snowpack and the deep weak layers are bound to start reacting to the warm temperatures and continued increased load in the days to come.

Cyril Shokoples, Matt Reynolds and the RTL3 crew