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South Rockies
Great fun skiing on 30-40 cm of soft powder on North Facing Slopes of Forum Ridge just East of the Forum Ranger Station (below Forum Lake). As long as we stuck to North Facing slopes and didn't head up too high (we stayed below 2000m), we seemed to avoid any issues with wind crusts.
We found 15-20 cm of snow overlying a melt-freeze crust today. In some areas right at ridge crest, a thin older wind slab could be found under the more recent unconsolidated snow. Despite cold temperatures, brief periods of sun caused surface snow to become moist on southerly aspects. Skiing on other aspects was great all day. We saw a few natural size 1 loose dry avalanches out of steep, rocky terrain that occurred today.
Approximately 15cm new snow on crust. Avy forecast really helped; mellow slopes skied nicely. Wind really picked up late in the day with ++ snow transport.
Some subtle settlements where storm snow overlies old windslab or crust. only seeing reactivity in small isolated pockets on steep rolls of unsupported drifts. generally storm slab 15-20cm deep but in some immediate lee features the old wind slab is breaking 40cm+ deep where unsupported. no base below 1800m as per forecasters report and that extends higher depending on aspect/feature. Typical extreme variability. Keep er low angle and/or on established trail at lower elevations. Crossloaded SE gullies above 2000m skiied very well if you can read the terrain well enough to ski where there's base.
Test profile on West aspect of Forum Ridge. Rain crust is present up to 1900m and supportive to skier traffic. 10-20cm redistributed snow from last weeks storm has formed soft wind slab in lee aspects and sheltered areas in the alpine. Ski quality was better then expected, in sheltered areas.
Did a quick morning lap and noticed small Hoar crystals growing on the surface of the snow. Hopefully the coming wind takes care of that. There's a nice layer of dust out there, but we chose to ride some mellow terrain. We went out yesterday and during our compression test found a sudden planar (CMT) about 60cm's down.
Midway up from forum lake 1 meter snowpack to ridge top good soft conditions with minimal wind effect. Second run followed np boundary on north aspects. At lower elevations 20 cm soft snow on a brakeable ice crust. Thin but passable to valley floor.
November 5 crust disappeared below 1900m and skiing below was treacherous with skis sinking to the ground.
Light snow through the day temperatures up to -9 strong SW winds moving recent snow in to wind slabs. We were skiing good wind sift be the end of the day. Submission for Avalanche Awareness Days
Rode the sleds into Middle Kootenay Pass today. We saw a supportive crust all the way up to around 1700 m with a dusting of new snow on top. Didn't see any new avalanches however the wind was strong most of the day and was definitely transporting snow and forming wind slab in lee areas at treeline and above. Temperatures continued to be mild and the sky was overcast all day. Not a lot to talk about really, except for the wind.
Had fun skiing in the storm and popping out small slabs on steeper terrain and convexities. Still early season hazards and generally thin. HST around 70cms at 2000m. 15cm storm snow sits on a thin melt freeze crust; Below is another dry 15cms on a 5cm crust; and 30 cms of facets with another 5cm crust close to ground.
Quick and easy travel below treeline up to Bennett Pass via Biscuit Board Creek. Accessed Akamina Ridge up to just below the highpoint. Lots of windscouring and thin coverage at spots on the ridge. Large cornices kept us out of any avalanche terrain below the ridge, and we skied conservative terrain back down the pass, and kept skier's left down the drainage to Wall Lake. A bit of dust on crust (~10cm) but reasonably nice spring skiing with some nice pockets of wind sift. Saw debris from a huge (3-3.5!) off the north face of Akamina into Wall lake, most likely from the last large storm cycle a couple weeks ago. Lots of old growth trees uprooted, would have been something to see from a safe distance!
Consolidated storm slab, feeling well settled below treeline but untrustworthy at treeline. Today, +1 at 1800m and -3.5 at 2250. Reasonably good skiing, especially north facing trees. Surprisingly, no crust from Yesterday felt on SE aspects at treeline.very dense/ slabby in treeline immediate lees, and with some shooting cracks on convexitys, we deliberately avoided : slopes >35 degrees, convex rolls, overhead big slopes, and obvious lee slopes. We also gave cornices at treeline an extra wide berth. Minimal blowing snow today due to warm temps. Natural Avalanche obs : a few size 1-2 storm Slabs (24hrs plus) alpine lees. From the drive up the parkway: a fresh sz 1.5 storm slab during the day, steep treeline lee closer to townsite. 1 sz 3 deep persistent slab, <24 hr old, cross loaded alpine NW aspect.