Home > Trip Reports > May 6-8, 2017, Holden Lake, Huge Avy Path

May 6-8, 2017, Holden Lake, Huge Avy Path

5/6/17
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Posted by sipski3 on 5/11/17 5:07am
The plan was to camp at the col above Holden Lake and ski Bonanza Peak. We had high hopes of skinning from Holden village. Their website said there was still 21 inches in town, but things were a lot more melted out than we had hoped they would be!

It was patchy snow and mostly hiking up to about 4800 feet. We were finally skinning consistent snow for about 20 minutes when we came across a HUGE avy path that had run down one of the creek drainages.

Pics are on the TAY Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/turnsallyear/permalink/10155260506069699/ (I can't figure out how to get them to load here, sorry!)

We ended up just skiing the slope above Holden Lake, which was perfect corn! It was one of the only slopes that wasn't full of avy debris! It's a bit of a mess out there!
Your HUGE avy photos are interesting. It has been a few years since I took a group there. Never have seen that size of avy there. Luckily.  ;)

Thanks for the report!

Yeah that is impressive. Not a quick place to get to for me but I would love hear or see more about that one.

Thanks for the photos.  Having gotten more into backcountry skiing the last few years I've become much more fascinated/aware of the behaviors of late season snowpacks.  The river-like nature of that path calls to mind sluices I've seen on Tuckerman Ravine......but on a much more massive, destructive scale!

Here's a baby sluice on Tuckerman.
https://vimeo.com/128211098

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may-6-8-2017-holden-lake-huge-avy-path
sipski3
2017-05-11 12:07:58