Stormy and Spicy

northrockiesfieldteam , Friday 21st February, 2025 8:15PM

At Bijoux the snowpack and weather were giving us signs that today was not a good day to be in avalanche terrain so we kept it simple and stayed away from any steep slopes and overhead hazards. With warm temperatures (snow line about 1000 m), and rapid loading from new snow and wind, the recipe for touchy avalanche conditions was set. On flat terrain at treeline we were able to remote trigger slabs on steep, small micro terrain features from up to 30 m away. The new slabs were between 15-60 cm deep and were failing on a layer of sugary facets and weak surface hoar. We also noticed that the moderate southwest wind was perfect for loading lee terrain features and building new sensitive cornices.

 We were unable to get alpine observations and had poor visibility.