Blunt / Q-Ball Loop

made.mart , Tuesday 28th January, 2025 10:15AM

We loosely followed the Q-Ball hiking trail to make a loop. We traveled between 1100m and 2000m. It was scenic and windy! Surface conditions: Better than expected. Snow had refrozen overnight (despite temps above freezing temps overnight at the local weather stations- Hankin, Telkwa, HBM). A surface crust was limited to open areas Treeline and BTL on solar aspects. It is spotty and breakable, making for exciting skiing. We observed no moist snow at any elevation. In sheltered BTL there is signifiant surface hoar growth, up to 10mm! That said, it was not observed in start zones (ALP/TL) due to wind. Alpine is heavily wind effected. The best skiing was in troughs or sheltered treeline polar aspects. We stuck to "thick areas" and avoided thin, rocky areas while skiing in the alpine. We had loaded sleds for accessing the Blunt but were able to drive to the bottom of the skiing, as the roads have been plowed quite far by the forestry folks. Since we had brought the sleds all the way out, so we decided to take a quick spin up to Harold Price. The surface snow there was still cold, settled pow and we found some fun meadow riding! Temps: It was -10C at the car and was between 0C and -1C from 1600m upward. Wind: Moderate to strong winds from the northwest.