Too Good To PASS Up!

Today we visited the Crowsnest Pass, and found excellent riding conditions. Over 30 centimetres of new snow has fallen, greatly improving the riding and access! While snowmobiling today we actively avoided avalanche terrain, and gave overhead hazard plenty of space. We observed evidence of a widespread natural avalanche cycle from the previous storm producing avalanches up to Size 2.0 in alpine and treeline terrain. The new snow in the below treeline is very soft, and has not started to form a cohesive slab yet. Throughout the day, the wind was surprisingly calm, but as we left the area, it picked up and began blowing the snow around. This will create sintering and bonding of the snow and begin to form more slabs in exposed areas at treeline, and in the alpine. We dug profiles on southerly and northerly slopes, and found the new storm snow to be sitting on a crust/facet interface on Southerly slopes, and sitting on large facets on Northerly slopes.