Heavy Hangs The Crown Cornices

Today we headed out to Crown Mountain with the intention of getting nerdy about the Persistent Slab problem. We aimed to get up high using non avalanche terrain and find a representative slope to test our layer of concern and find out more about the general structure of the lower snowpack. The day was windy, -5 at treeline, and overcast skies all day. Surface conditions made for fun sledding and skiing with about 20cm of new snow from the past 48h! Total height of snow at 2000m ranged from 150-200 cm. Our findings in our snow pit revealed a right side up, supportive upper and mid snowpack. The lower snowpack however is a different story, loose, sugary facets exist above the Nov crust complex, and do not show signs of bonding. We suspect this weak layer has been the culprit of several large natural avalanches occurring in the past few days. Areas in the alpine where a bridging crust from December warming and precip does not exist are likely areas to trigger this persistent problem. Check out Avalanche Canada’s public resources to learn more about persistent slab problems!