Cariboos
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Lovely Lucille, we are so happy to be back.
The good: warm temperatures are helping to settle the snowpack. We enjoyed snowfall all day above 1600 m and easy travel conditions.
The bad: the warm weather has turned the new snow into moist mashed potatoes with some firm tracks and old wind affect hidden beneath. Visibility was so poor it was a major limiting factor in our day.
The ugly: while avalanche activity has slowed on the March 8 surface hoar, it is still a distinct layer in the snowpack that shows reactivity in some testing. This means that while it may be difficult to trigger this layer, it will have large consequences when it does.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Wednesday 26th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025This Groundhog says it's spring
It was off to Barkerville and groundhog lake area to check on conditions and the status of the persistent slab.
It was mild when we started up towards Proserpine, and there was about 15 cm of new snow in the meadows, not quite enough to hide the firm tracks below. We dug a pit at ridgeline and found no significant results on deeper layers, but the most recent storm snow had some results on a layer of very soft snow that sits beneath.
It began snowing around noon with light wind. We saw a couple avalanches, a persistent slab that was triggered by cornice fall last week, and a machine accidental storm slab that looked like it occurred yesterday. We also noticed some pinwheeling on steep slopes. By mid afternoon the surface snow was moist.
As we returned to the truck, the snow turned to rain around 1400 m.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025North Blue River
Aaron Cooperman,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Spring has not sprung
Toured up Murray today and skied a few laps in the main bowl on the N/NW aspect. Found 15-20cms of snow on the temperature crust at 1,500m and about 45cms at 1,800m. Made for some great skiing. No real signs on instability other than steeper unsupported tree wells. We did avoid the convex looking start zone early in the ridge and opted for the mellower treed area to start our runs. Snow was getting warm at 1,450m on the way down.
Phil Soicher,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 12:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Front Row Seats
We had a short day of fun in the sun at Lucille. Variable winds have blown around the new snow leaving soft windslabs and hard surfaces in a wide range of places. We dug a quick profile at tree line and had concerning results (CTE 7 SC dn 55 on SH) on a layer buried on March 8, but had seen no signs of cracks, whumphs, or previous avalanches. We were just discussing this confusing situation from our sunny lunch spot when a group on the far side of Butterfly Bowl trigger two remote avalanches below them as they played on a broad ridgeline (they were away from the hazard). Later we saw another small rider triggered avalanche down in the main bowl. This slab seems to be hanging in a balance where it isn't going naturally but is fairly reactive to human triggering.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Friday 14th March, 2025 3:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025With Great Powder Comes Great Responsibility
Allen Cr delivered the powder today, but before we got too distracted we dug down to test a few layers of concern. The persistent weak layer from mid February seems to be going away but we found a weak layer of surface hoar in between a crust and the new storm snow that produced concerning results. -6 degrees at 2000m, light snow and obscured skies today. We rode the trees and small features.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Wednesday 12th March, 2025 12:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Slabs be popin
freerideordie,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 12:00AM
Ground hog lake
nahanni,
Friday 7th March, 2025 9:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Trophies
greg.rector757,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 2nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 2nd, 2025Mica
Found a shearing layer down 30ish cm and signs of avalanches within the last week. Did not see one today though.
greg.rector757,
Saturday 1st March, 2025 11:00AM
Elsey - groomers and schmoo
Got quote hot about 10am.
pretty chill day except a brief period of excitement when we set off an avy below us from the top of the ridge. Hang fire kept creeping the slide closer and closer to where we were standing.
Skiing was like a groomer where it was wind effected, actually not bad. Deep heavy schmoo down lower. Another party was skiing a North face north of us and reported similar conditions (but theirs sounded better).
pit on 25 degree open slope near treeline: hard result on column test. Sudden planar failure with very little resistance.
Failed I assume in the exact same spot the slide triggered. A layer of cold facets under the storm snow.
saw lots of recent avys in the alpine, mostly on north or north east faces in depressions.
darthekai,
Saturday 1st March, 2025 10:00AM
Brap Brap
We found lots of soft snow to ride at Barkerville. The stronger-than-forecasted winds surprised us. They were gusting up to moderate at ridge crests and we saw drifts building. With warm temperatures, -1 at Treeline, the soft snow was settling into a slab over facets. We didn't see any new avalanches or get results in our test profile. We did see a sled-triggered avalanche from the weekend. For now, we stayed cautious and chose to ride in mellow terrain away from any overhead hazard.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Wednesday 26th February, 2025 6:00PM
Allen Creek
Sled access ski touring today. Found extremely reactive storm snow 15cm on top of facets and surface hoar in places. Skied sunny mellow S slope then moved and skied a N asp area. Observed multiple natural storm slab avalanches in sheltered N aspects on suspected surface hoar, also triggered multiple sz 0.5-1 releases skiing steep trees in N asp.
johnwilliamcrowley,
Sunday 23rd February, 2025 2:00PM
Mt Brew
Lots of snow was today’s blessing and curse. Left the 1300 rd at 7km, temp in the morning around -1c. Difficult sledding, lots of getting stuck. Got to 1500m at midday, still below zero with snow in the tree tops, little wind. 40 cm of recent snow. Ski penetration 20cm, boot penetration over 60cm. Crust at 60 cm . Skied steep dense trees on south aspect from 1750m to 1500m. Started mixed precipitation at the end of the day, intermittent rain below 1400m at end of day. No signs of recent avalanches but we didn’t see into much terrain.
GRidler,
Saturday 22nd February, 2025 12:00PM
The reset is coming
tomgibbons13,
Thursday 20th February, 2025 11:00PM
Snuck tour in before warm up.
Snowing on way up skin track. Good powder at elevation. As it warmed up, turned to heavy wet snow at lower elevation with rain on way out. Snow falling off trees on way up and dripping wet on way out.
We dug a pit near top of couloir, findings: consistent activity on top 15 cm due to hoar frost layer (faceted snow?) from cold snap. Top 15 cm’s was starting to slab up. Negative ECT. Visible layer (perhaps from January?) around 40cm down. Not on the ect though. Right side up snowpack.
Skied couloir, some sluffing skiers initiated in couloir. Skied one at a time and waited in safe spots. No whumpfing. Some cracking/propagation at bottom of couloir. See photos.
First MIN so may be some errors, hope it helps!
kellyjpeter,
Thursday 20th February, 2025 1:00PM
Wide Spread Surface Hoar growth
Widespread 1-2cm surface hoar growth on NW aspect of Mt Trudeau between 1300 and 1900m. Well-defined even late in the afternoon after the heat of the day.
lerchsa12,
Monday 17th February, 2025 12:00PM
Moncton
3days 2 night trip to Moncton cabin. N, NE facing slopes skied with no signs avi activity. Perfect conditions with great temps -5 to -15 with no wind. Skied 40cm of powder on the crust, crust didn't interfer with great skiing. A previous avalanche on a very steep alpine slope southwest facing seen from a distance. Great times.
estherplatts,
Sunday 16th February, 2025 9:00AM
Same Same
There were no surprises at Bell today. It was another cold clear day with a thin high cloud and light winds. Surface hoar is growing on top of a now faceted snowpack. Avalanche hazard remains reduced as conditions wait for a change in the weather. In the honey holes without tracks the faceted surface rides like cold powder. We didn’t see any recent avalanche activity, but we are still watching for hard, hollow sounding wind slabs in the alpine along ridges and in open terrain.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Friday 14th February, 2025 5:00PM
Lucille Limelight
Today we were filming up at Lucille. The day was cool and cloudy with light winds blowing from the west. There hasn't been any new snow lately and it's starting to show. There are quite a bit of old tracks or hard wind-blown snow affecting the ride quality but there are some good pockets of powder to be found. The cold weather has also turned much of the snowpack into soft, sugary facets which is causing problems like windslabs to linger. We didn't see any signs of instability but we were cautious near ridgelines and areas where stiff snow sits over sugar. We did a test profile away from the wind in the bowl at 1850 m but didn't get any results of note in the faceted snowpack.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Wednesday 12th February, 2025 5:00PM
Burn stomp about
Tour into Charlottes' shoulder to check out the burn, along the Moncton drainage. No whoomphing, cracks of signs of instability. 140cm in alpine, with 30cm of powder on top of the crust from ? early January. Didn't break through and rode well on `30 degree slope.
estherplatts,
Sunday 9th February, 2025 8:00AM
Cold Clear Calm
We found deep powder in sheltered areas at Proserpine. In more wind-exposed areas, we could feel the hard old snow under the new. Today, there was no wind, and the cold, clear conditions were growing surface hoar right up to the mountaintop. We dug a few profiles and found the rain crust from January 17th down 40cm. Only one profile had surface hoar, buried down 20cm in an untouched meadow below Treeline.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Thursday 6th February, 2025 5:00PM
A Bit Chilly Out
Sledding into Lucille, we were uncertain about the layers in the upper snowpack so we started the day with extra caution. Before committing to riding, we dug a few profiles at Treeline to check for melt-freeze crusts and surface hoar. We did not see these layers here. In the Alpine we saw easterly winds reverse loading westerly slopes. There were windslabs on both southeast and northwest aspects. We chose to spend the day riding powder in sheltered Treeline terrain.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Tuesday 4th February, 2025 6:00PM
East Raft
No new avalanches today. Evidence of loose wet cycle to size 2 yesterday, and some cornice chunks. Debris on fans from gullies as well, to size 1.
Aaron Cooperman,
Tuesday 28th January, 2025 9:00PM
Mr Brew
Quick tour up to Mt Brew, west and north ridge. On north aspect at 1940m at tree line, 45cm boot pen, 10cm ski pen. Light North wind, -5c. Saw 2-3mm surface hoar, in protected areas on way up. On south steep aspects some small pinwheeling.
GRidler,
Sunday 26th January, 2025 1:04PM
Bomber in the Dore
Overall snow depth varied between 180cm and 230cm.
No signs of slab avalanche throughout our 20km journey, despite many point releases on sunny faces.
We did an extended column test on the slope we skied. It produced no results (ETCN30). There was a supportive crust between 30 and 35 cm down. We didn't encounter wind slab on our north west facing slope in the (upper) treeline at 1900m.
10 to 15 cm of new snow made for awesome, fast skiing.
andru.mccracken,
Saturday 25th January, 2025 2:00PM
Antler Creek fire south aspect
Skied up to the ridgetop off the 3100 bypass road to check out some south aspect meadows in the antler Creek fire.
Snow depth varied 110 to 140. We found 2 reactive layers, one under 30cm of fresh snow and a deeper one 60cm below surface. Both layers were icy crusts modified from warm weather and sun. The lower reactive layer broke at 3 hits from the elbow, top one from 4 hits at elbow. In an extended column test neither layer broke after 5 hits from the shoulder.
Snow is poorly bonded to the ground surface in the burnt areas, but don't appear to be a concern right now.
We stayed out of large openings and skied trees out. No sign of avalanches, no whumping or settling snowpack. No avalanche signs from skiing.
Trees were dense, lines were skiable but not amazing. Creeks are filling in but bridges over the water are weak.
matzner.eric,
Friday 24th January, 2025 1:30PM
Rd 80 Trophies
Great skiing in sheltered terrain and good skiing on steep S asp. 15-20 cm recent low density storm snow over previous settled in sheltered terrain, over previous sun crust on S asp.. Skiied 2100 m to 1600 m S asp.
Aaron Cooperman,
Thursday 23rd January, 2025 8:00PM
Surface Hoar
The entire Belle Mountain riding area has been hammered by winds in the alpine (changing today as it is snowing S3 at my house right now). We found a nice sheltered pocket of snow to ski and the snowpack generally felt weak and faceted @ 2100m; HS 105. Buried SH down 35 produced easy shear results but nothing on our ECT (ECTN22). Of significant note was the lack of wind and afternoon sun prior to this storm. Surface Hoar (5mm) was found on our sheltered NE slope and will likely be buried under this new snow. Expect buried SH below this new snow in sheltered locations.
sprockter,
Wednesday 22nd January, 2025 12:00PM
Raft
Great skiing in sheltered terrain. Widespread wind effect- recent 5-10cm snow formed some wind slab over previous firm wind affected snow. One small size 1 skier triggered wind slab in open trees at 2000m east aspect.
paulcampsall,
Wednesday 22nd January, 2025 10:00AM
Trudeau shoulder
good day up mount trudeau today. skiing in the trees was solid. a bit of recent snow on top of a supportive base made for fun fast skiing. at and above treeline was a writeoff with a fairly stiff windslab with lots of variablity on all aspects of the shoulder. visible wind transport blowing south on the feature while we were up there and some isolated shooting cracks on the north side of the shoulder.
the lowest elevations (~1300m and below) had a sun crust forming in open areas that was manageable during the ski out but will probably stiffen up overnight.
Darian Spagrud,
Sunday 19th January, 2025 9:00AM
Jubilee Ski Tour
15cm of light fluffy snow overnight at point of observation. Skinned up to repeater tower, followed NW ridge line and skied out on SW facing slopes back to trail. Approx -12 at 12:00pm.
Pete,
Sunday 19th January, 2025 12:52AM
Powder Up High
There was fresh snow at Lucille today! 18cm of fluffy storm snow was being blown into soft windslabs along ridge lines at upper elevations. While these slabs were soft, we did see signs of instability like shooting cracks and small slab avalanches on easterly aspects. The best riding was found along the edges of tree clumps where the snow was sheltered from northwest winds. We found a slight crust down 20 cm and a second icy crust with facets underneath down around 40 but they did not show signs of propagation in tests (ECTN 21 dn 21, ECTN 25 dn 36). There were flurries throughout the day and new snow is starting to build some depth over the generally shallow snowpack (125 cm).
northrockiesfieldteam,
Friday 17th January, 2025 7:00PM
Lucille mountian AST 1 course
During our ast1 course we did a few compression tests and got two sudden collapses at 15cm (13 taps) and 55cm(23 taps)
At 55cm depth there is a crust layer from Dec 6th
Also another crust layer at 30cm from early Jan
We did an extended column test and there was no signs of fracture initiation or propagation
Conditions were overcast, snow, and wind coming from east in the morning and changing to west throughout the day
Around 25cm< fresh snow from last night/early morning
We stuck to simple terrain and avoided steep slopes and alpine
sundayfundayliam,
Thursday 16th January, 2025 11:00AM
Bald Mtn Training day
Was out Teaching and AST course in the Area of Bald Mtn. around 5 cm of new snow on top of a 3-5cm crust. Saw 2 loose snow avalnches on east facing slopes both started due to warming of upper snowpack by trees loosing there snow.
nitro,
Wednesday 15th January, 2025 10:00AM
All Crust , No Bust!
The rain crust that is currently hampering riding conditions around Wells is also limiting snow available for the wind to blow. This meant that moderate winds could not form the forecasted wind slabs. We checked around but saw no signs of instability like cracks, whumpfs, or recent avalanches.
We dug a profile at 1895 m (upper treeline) on a south aspect and found 170cm of total snow (HS) and no significant test results (ECTN 24 dn 28 cm on DF). The mid & lower snowpack is well consolidated after recent warm temperatures.
After verifying conditions, we stepped out cautiously into challenging terrain at treeline. You could definitely feel the crust catch as you rode but it broke away from the sleds making for OK riding. The best riding was in the trees where the crust was thinnest.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Tuesday 14th January, 2025 5:00PM
Thick ice layer
We rode proserpine and groundhog. A thick ice layer was on top of the snow at all elevations. Thinner in the trees but significantly hard crust on the open areas. The ice layer was on top of around 20 to 30cm of fresh snow from earlier in the week.
dennisfriesenpg,
Sunday 12th January, 2025 1:00AM
Should have listened to the other giyy
Despite a damning nearby min report we tried our hand at touring at groundhog. We found a 0.5-1cm ice crust. First noticed at 1,500m and it became apparent that it was at all elevations. It was found at 1,850m near the summit of Elk Mountain. We did not attempt to tour/ski as a result. Sledding however, was manageable despite the crust and we played around a little bit before heading home early. There is a curious little guy who seems at home in the cabin.
Phil Soicher,
Sunday 12th January, 2025 12:00AM
Bad Crust on Murray
Terrible breakable crust on jubilee trail from the parking lot up to at least 1750 m where we turned around. Expect the crust exists much higher as it didn’t seem to be getting any better as we climbed.
eli.riedl,
Saturday 11th January, 2025 3:00PM
Mica Mountain (Alan's Meadows)
30cm new snow
Temp was warm -5,light wind made it feel a lot colder though.
Very wind affected in alpine and open meadows. Thick 2inch crust where affected.
Probed 175cm
Could not feel the previous hard pack underneath.
stephanie4555,
Saturday 11th January, 2025 1:05PM
Storm is brewing
No visibility, strong winds and storm slabs kept us below Treeline today. We choose to ski sheltered low-angle terrain at Raven Lake. Below 1300m the snow was moist and a breakable crust was forming.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Friday 10th January, 2025 5:00PM
Kristi Glacier Trail
Up Kristi Glacier Trail doing an AST2 course. Stayed pretty close to the road and didn't detour into anything too challenging.
Cloudy day with little to no wind and stayed below freezing.
No signs of recent avalanche activity or instability observed.
Snowpack is roughly 65cm with noticeable crusts at 15cm and 30cm.
Extended column test showed no concerns in the snowpack but was conducted on flat ground in the shade below tree line @1250m.
rtourand22,
Thursday 9th January, 2025 12:00AM
Up and Over
Good travel conditions, moderate avalanche hazard in the Alpine and a beautiful day at Allen Creek allowed us to venture further west into complex terrain. The 5cm of snow from overnight was being redistributed by southerly winds. In the Alpine, we found small reactive wind slabs. We're still finding pockets of soft snow in sheltered areas.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Wednesday 8th January, 2025 5:00PM
Wild westerly winds
After a week of calm and cold, the wind and temperature increased significantly today. We saw blowing snow at ridge crests and watched wind slabs growing on easterly aspects. The wind slabs were easy to trigger and propagated far. This obvious warning sign of instability, along with a temperature increase to +2.5 at Treeline, made it an easy decision to stay off of large Alpine terrain. We returned to the sheltered trees where pockets of soft snow remained.
northrockiesfieldteam,
Tuesday 7th January, 2025 4:00PM
Lucille Pit
Teaching an AST2 for Robson Backcountry Adventures this week. We spent the day at Lucille, practicing companion rescue and digging a snow profile. We had light S-SE winds, gusting to moderate throughout the day. Significant snow transport was observed at ridgetop and at all exposed TL and ALP features, likely building windslabs in all lee features. We saw no signs of instability and no recent avalanche activity.
Our snow profile took place on a NW slope (below the ridge and above the lake) @ 1950m. We found no significant results in either our compression test or ECT. HS 105.
sprockter,
Tuesday 7th January, 2025 3:00PM
Viking Ridge Leisure Walk
Quick ski (mostly a walk) up to Viking Ridge meadows. Ended up boot packing up to 1200m due to hard packed trail and less than ideal skinning conditions. Had some lunch and got in a quick transceiver practise before skiing from 1400m back down to 1200m - about 4 inches on a crust.
jpspatterson,
Sunday 5th January, 2025 12:00PM
Ozalenka Cabin
esmeadows,
Sunday 5th January, 2025 11:00AM
Refridgerator factory
3 days skiing great stable snowpack. Interesting avalanche noticed on the sled in. Storm snow was great on Friday then a slight sun crust developed for Saturday. Snowboarding was fantastic. Skiing slightly harder. Very firm and supportive made for hard landings and the odd hard "kick" from a buried terrain feature. Up high was Styrofoam. Very obviously wind effected. Still some goods to be found in more sheltered features.
theekaijorgenson,
Saturday 4th January, 2025 11:00AM
Best of times, worst of times
Toured up Sugarbowl today. Climbing was sporty in the forest till about 1,400m. Was very hard packed until then with very little snow getting through the canopy. It got easier above that to ridge top. Skiing was great. We headed down the meadows but quickly got engulfed in willows. We slowly made our way through the lower forest back to truck regretting we didn’t take the summer trail out.
Phil Soicher,
Tuesday 31st December, 2024 12:00AM
Monkton
Did not ski any East aspects.
A big thank you to the Cariboo ski touring club for maintaining access to an excellent area.
jonah,
Sunday 29th December, 2024 2:15PM