Stormy Tuesday in Elkford

southrockies , Tuesday 16th April, 2024 4:20PM

The Mountain Weather forecast specifically mentioned Elkford as the hot spot for snowfall today, and they nailed it! There was 15 cm of new snow over the crust formed during the recent warm temps and clear skies over the weekend. The crust was breakable and moist as it had not fully refrozen, and the new snow was bonding well to this previous surface. There was zero visibility into the alpine, so we couldn't verify any avalanche activity. Still, we suspect that if there were any, it would be very isolated to the very alpine, where there may have been some variable winds as the front passed through. There is still a generally dry snowpack on north-facing slopes, and we found 140 cm of snow depth. The upper snowpack is a series of crusts, the mid-pack is well consolidated, and the lower snowpack is mostly facets gaining strength. Access was still ok but rocky and bumpy for the first km before the kiosk.