Kootenay Pass North

Touchy wind slabs on steep lee (E) aspects at treeline. Approx 20cm of snow over the Dec 13 SH and 25cm over the Dec 8 Crust. Dec 8 Crust is thin and breakable on most aspects, on steepish Solar aspects the crust is thicker and supportive. Riding is improving at Kootenay Pass, you can still feel the crust in steeper terrain, especially solars where a steep turn will have you pounding into the crust wondering if you've hit another rock. Riding will be great with another 10-20cm, but it could also be spicy avalanche conditions with more snow and wind.

While ascending along a ridge we were able to easily ski cut or kick cornice chunks and trigger 3 size 1's. Depths ranged from 20-40 cm and avalanches propagated across small features, but seemed to be confined to wind-loaded pockets. Skiing N through E aspects we didn't observe any other avalanches, although the vis was poor today.