Not Today....

We left the rain and snow in Fernie this morning, and headed to Elkford to check on the snowpack around Koko Claims. We have been wondering when there would be enough new snow, warming or wind in the South Rockies to make the thin, sugary, weak snowpack primed for human triggered avalanches. The answer was not today.... We found surprisingly little wind effect in the two drainages we visited with foot and sled pen still to ground in non compacted areas at treeline and below. Many of the usual paths have tracks in them now. There was only a trace of new snow during the day and the temps hovered around zero. Winds were light out of the south west and it was snowing lightly when we left. Though we didn't find big avalanche problems there today, snowpacks like this one force us to be on the lookout for signs of instability each and every trip. New loading from snow, wind or rain to go along with the recent warming temps could mean a big jump in the potential for human triggering sometime in the future...the day just wasn't today!