Disappearing Act

Now that both temperatures and the avalanche hazard are lowering we can talk about the riding situation in Kakwa. To be frank, Kakwa has taken a beating. This week's warm weather has triggered widespread wet avalanches and left a wet surface far into the alpine. Today there was a marked decrease in avalanche activity but that's not the only issue here. Valley bottom temperatures of +8ºC have dropped snow depth by 40 cm, turned what's left into mashed potatoes, formed pools of water and thin ice on the lakes, and opened creek holes everywhere. Last night the temperatures at the cabin never dipped below 0ºC. We headed up to Flat Top to see if we could get above the warmth. While only the top 10cm were wet, the warmth had extended up past the glacier. The best riding today was at lower elevation where the whole snowpack has warm, dense mush that made for fun riding in the trees below Mt Ian Monroe but made for awful, wet stucks. With temperatures set to drop, soon this will be hard as rock.