Poked the grizzly

Avalanche Canada Poked the grizzly Submitted by christophelaberge94 Observations date Fri, Dec 27, 2024, 12:05 Location 51.227482° N 117.457458° W Reporting on Snow conditions Quick Avalanche Snowpack Weather Incident Snow conditions Riding quality was: Amazing Snow conditions were: Deep powder Hard We rode: Alpine slopes Mellow slopes Steep slopes Sunny slopes Information The day was: Cloudy Sunny Windy Avalanche conditions Slab avalanches today or yesterday. Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks. Comments Skinned up Teddy Bear trees, saw no signs of instability. Waited at treeline for the visibility to improve in the alpine before continuing towards Papa Bear. Heard a solid whumpf near the summit. It's at this moment that we knew the grizzly was awake. Despite this fair warning we decided to investigate towards grizzly couloir, to get some feedback for the community. With great visibility upon arriving at the top of the couloir we were able to confirm that Papa Bear was ready to shed the coat of storm snow from his den. We decide to get our shovels out and release the expected windslab with a Fridge size chunk of cornice. As expected, the start zone fractured 30cm deep over 30m wide and ran approximately 1000m. We rode down the avy path down the couloir and enjoyed some amazing snow down the drainage. Moral of the story, today was a good reminder that the wind events of the previous days created considerable problems for riders in the alpine. Poke the bear, but be humble! Happy holidays :)