KAVU: Clear Above Visibility Unlimited

AVCAN FORECASTER , Friday 24th January, 2025 7:15PM

If you can avoid the wind slabs, there’s still plenty of fun safe riding to be had, especially on sheltered north through east aspects. There’s a stack of weak layers in the upper 30 cm of the snowpack, including the mid-January and early January surface hoar layers, which we found again today near Meadow Creek. We also dug near the crown of an old avalanche that ran about two weeks ago on the early December surface hoar/facets. All our investigation this week suggests that layer is now inactive—at least in the terrain we’ve been investigating. When the taps turn back on, things will get mighty avalanchey for a while. But for now, the high pressure has brought great visibility, and the cold temps have faceted some of the crust on south-facing slopes. Around Kaslo, a bonus 10 cm of cold snow fell in the last few days, making for decent riding. Stick to north and east aspects, and keep your slope angles in check—the shallower terrain is riding best right now. Make good choices!