It was a close Race(horse peak), but the MIN winner is.....

Today we spent a beautiful sunny day in the Crowsnest Pass. We were on the hunt to see the effect of the warming on the buried weak layer. At 2100 m the daytime high was 10.4. It felt like May! Despite the elevated temp, the surface of the snowpack was only moist down 2-5 cm. The moderate wind was enough to keep the snowpack somewhat cool. However, at lower elevations, the snowpack was wet on top trending moist deeper into the snowpack, about 15-20 cm down. If you’ve made it this far, you’ll be happy to know the January 2026 MIN winner is: Henry Hungerford Barrett. Send us a DM to claim your prize. Congrats!! Thank you for your excellent MIN report. The crust from the January high pressure event is starting to break down under the newer snow. However, when we dug on a NE aspect at treeline we found facets above and below this crust. The warming has created a slab on top of the facet/crust combo. This weak layer is something we will be monitoring. As we moved around the terrain, we saw sluffing and pinwheeling and one size 1 loose wet avalanche out of a steep alpine feature. The snow is sadly melting away rapidly at the Atlas staging area, but the coverage on the trail network is still in great shape. The snow surface was firm and refrozen in the morning, making it challenging to keep the sleds cool, but by the afternoon, we were smooth sailing. Hope you guys get out to enjoy the sunshine!