AST 2 Course Observations

Hyland Backcountry , Friday 7th February, 2025 5:15PM

Here are some observations from a Smithers based AST 2 course this week. We toured in the Hudson Bay, Blunt, and Hankin areas from Weds - Friday. - Snowpack depth is highly variable, especially in all open areas - In sheltered treeline areas, @ 1600m, snowpack depths are 120-150cm average - Most areas in the Alpine and Treeline elevation zones are completely wind hammered, with all sorts of windforms out there. The only good snow is Below Treeline areas. - The snowpack is cold, and facetted and air temps have been in the -10c range at Treeline. Sunny sky all week, up until today, with light to calm winds. - Strong, previous NE winds have built hard slab conditions in all lee and cross loaded areas. We had a few isolated large whumpfs on these. - We saw no recent avalanches, but there is lots of evidence from last weekend with the onslaught of the winds, avalanches up to size 2. - We found the December raincrust Persistent Layer down 60-80cm, and in several snowpack tests, we had very hard to no results in Compression and Extended Column instability tests. We gave this layer respect still in larger , consequential terrain, and avoided thin, shallow areas. - Our main concern was getting hurt with the challenging ski conditions, and cold temps. Sean Fraser ACMG/CAA