Powder Fever

The riding was AMAZING up Chappell today with 60cm of untouched powder to play in. The downside was that the avalanche hazard was still quite elevated. Just driving from Valemount to the staging area we glimpsed numerous slab avalanches up to size 2.5 on various faces and elevation bands. Riding up to the terrain we also spotted several more slabs out that we suspected had likely released during the storm on the 31st and 1st of Feb. The weak layer was down around 60cm and consisted of small surface hoar and facets. This layer is most prevalent at the tree line and below and will likely persist as a problem for a while to come. In the alpine the storm snow seems to be bonding well.