Purcells

Spent the last week skiing from Purcell lodge. The big questions at the start of the week was, Do we have a surface hoar problem? Do we have a basal(ground) facet problem? It was a warm mild overcast week with temps just below zero on several days, but just managed to avoid crusts above 1850m. It snow 20cm over the course of the week with most if coming with the passage of the cold front on the 23rd. The snow pack is well settled, travel above 1850m was easy. Skiing was quite good at TL Very little natural avalanche activity. The SH is buried 60cm deep was giving hard sudden planar results on compression test, but didn't see any activity on it and cut across many north facing steep creek banks(40 degrees) with no result. Isolated whumpfing in shallow and wind affected areas. In compression test the basal facets at the saw would break(SC) in the moderate to hard range. In the thin rocky areas in polar alpine/TL, this layer would be easy to trigger. Excellent skiing in the burnt timber, trees and meadowy areas. On the last day, we went to check a North alpine run and found wind slabs, shallow areas with rocks, and generally a weak faceted snow pack. With the cold temps moving in, there is a lot of near surfacing and SH growth. On the flight out over the Dogtooths, there was a few small winds slabs in the SW alpine and isolated dry loose cycle to size 2 on SE aspects in the Alpine.(see photo)