Clemina

Watched a group of 7 trigger avalanche in goat ridge bowl. Unsure of involvement. Considerable size(2.5). Group was pushing the terrain considering the ratings of the day.

It felt like a return to winter riding today at Clemina. The crust from late March is much thinner and lower down here then what we have seen the last couple days. This mean that at upper elevations the snow felt deep and powdery. We didn’t seen any recent avalanches but did note a couple of wind slabs in the alpine 48-72hrs old. While we felt comfortable in most terrain, we remained cautious of large wind loaded faces where the potential for human triggered avalanches remained. We spent the day playing in rolling alpine terrain and sheltered bowls.

Spent two nights at the YORA Porcupine Hut. Lots of snow pllus above-zero temperatures made for some sticky spring skiing. We explored up a chute to the north of the hut and managed to get above freezing level (~1,800m) but poor visibility and questionable terrain kept us from summiting. We were pretty soaked by the time we got back to the cabin. The facilities are lovely--kudos to YORA. We were also grateful for the logging road access when one in our party tweaked an LCL on the way out. Notwithstanding the injury, a grand time was had!

You couldn't ask for better scenery than a sunny day in Clemina! While the winds had really been at it recently there were still pockets of good riding to be found on sheltered north and east faces in the alpine and down in the trees. In the alpine those were also the areas with the highest avalanche hazard as the wind had deposited fresh wind slabs there (as evidenced by a couple of the avalanches we saw). We also found the now buried surface hoar crystals from last week under about 35cm of snow. While we didn't see any avalanches in the area that had failed on this surface hoar layer, we are definitely keeping an eye on it, especially as it get's buried deeper.

Storm time up on the hill today. This limited where we were able to travel however we did make a brief trip up to 2200m for a quick look in the snow. The NE aspect we decided to inspect had a mix of up to 15cm of fist HST or pockets of 30cm 4 finger wind slab. We opted to test one of these pockets and found repeated sudden collapses down 35 cm on a preserved surface hoar layer. This same layer failed full block on ECT and to our surprise we also had the upper wind slab fail full block on a stellar layer. Both on the same tap. Moderate sustained winds and steady snowfall persisted though the day.

Skiid in the clemina area from Wednesday to Friday. On our last day we observed what we suspected was a Glide Crack at treeline on a west aspect. No other signs of instability. Skiing was excellent. Totally had a good time.

Clemina did not receive the 15cms that the cariboos got over the last couple days. Hard conditions in all but the most sheltered locations. Calm day with some strong sun in the am hours then overcast and grey for the remainder of the day. -8 in the alpine calm to light sw winds. 1950m 200cm HS. Found the 210111 surface hoar 50cms down at treeline. Hard and resistant compression test results and no propagation on ect. Saw one sz 1 sled trigger slab at treeline from a few days ago. Looked to be the same pwl. Wind slabbed everywhere in open terrain. We found a few untouched pockets where some turns could be had. Pls send snow.....

Some Good skiing but conditions changing due to strong winds. Warm temps have settled upper pack, dense but not actual slab yet. Snowpack supportive on skis but facetting/weakening around willows.

Second hand photo send to me. More evidence that the mid january surface hoar is getting active in sheltered BTL and TL areas as the upper slab settles. Its 40-50cm deep and has been cracking and propagating on shallow terrain. Keep your gaurd up!

Did test in a leeward snow catcher 250cm depth. Sheltered area 50m lower showed 140cm 3 different thin facet layers 25cm, 60cm, 85cm All took 4+ from shoulder with resistant failure. Snow below 1850m seems to be supportive top layer, but lots of settlement when skinning,and mostly facets as you can push pole to ground, we avoided the slightly more complex terrain. Snow we turned up w sled, sintered well and made a good skin track after about half an hour.

Nice day with some decent snow and sunshine. Overnights winds moved snow around quite and bit at all elevations. Morning winds in the access valley were sustained moderate and quite cool at -9. Sun was out most of the day but cloud cover came in heavy at 1400hrs. And yet again we have another layer of surface hoar growing proud and strong at all elevations in any area protected from the winds. No signs of instability noted but we kept it pretty mellow due to group skill. Lots of ? riders (slope testers) out there pushing some steep slopes without consequence.

The wind has been getting into the burn on Canoe, lots of new snow but slabby. We were basically riding 10cm of yesterday's snow most of the way down. It had a granular quality to it. Still great skiing, but wish we would have been moving 30cm of pow from the last two storms.

Stormy day! Hard rain and above zero temps to 1250m where it then gave way to snowfall and moderate winds which seemed to come from all directions. Snowing from 1cm/hr in the morning and then increased to 2+cm/hr by mid afternoon. Alpine temps stuck around -2. Total storm snow was very hard to judge as sustained mod-strong winds continued to blow snow all over the mountains. Heavy cloud and extremely poor vis all day made the open treeline or alpine not a fun place to be. We lowered our hazard and stuck to technical trees while we continued to be cautious of our slope angle and exposure. No avalanches observed but not a lot of opportunity for obs. Some whumping and cracking.

I was there to check out how bad the snowpack was. I dug a quick skipole pit and tried to get it to release with out success. Things seem bonded. I was surprised at snow depth between 60cm and 80 cm at 1800m more like 50cm at 1600m. Short run, got a bit weedy towards the end. Traversed a bit to return up and found myself wallowing in the deep. 40cm of unconsolidated snow with each step. Wish I would have found that line on the way down. The snowpack appears to hold some promise

HN 40 cm at 1850m elevation, 30cm at 1600m. Low density powder, beautiful ski quality. Some wind affect and transport above TL. Storm snow settling into soft slab in BTL glades. No whumpfing observed, but cracks appearing and spreading on unsupported rolls above 30 deg, resistant failure on crust below.

Fun day tree riding in Clemina. Snow conditions varied from hard wind affected snow in open areas to pockets of powder in sheltered areas. No avalanche activity noted but we stayed mostly at lower elevations and in the trees and didn’t cover a lot of ground. Dug a test pit on a steep northern aspect where the trees opened into a small cutblock. Repeated failures on moderate hits on a rain crust down 53 cm. Didn’t do an extended column as multiple cut attempts on various features produced no propagation results. Had to work for good snow but it was hidden out there.

Newer group to the area traveled to goat ridge bowl, terrible visibility, although patches of sun and clear weather at times. windy most of the day moderate from SW. Loose snow sluffing in steep lee terrain, one less than 24hr windslab in lee terrain, sled tracks observed.

Great stormy day in the hills. Slight rain/snain in the valley bottom at 0830 to about 1400m. Alpine temps hovering around -5. Stormy day snowing 1cm per hour most of the day with light winds at TL with stronger guts near ridgetop. Terrible visibility so travel was limited and we primarily stuck to tree riding. We hear one loud avalanche off in the distance in the direction of the Dixon Glacier/Mt Albreda but never went to investigate due to weather conditions. Moderate temps and winds are causing the upper 25cms of storm snow to stiffen up and it is sitting on top of a softer layer below. This is causing cracking and small slab releases on steep features at treeline, which will get more spicey as the load increases.

Great day in the back country, we covered most of the zone. Significant melt freeze crust observed under 6cm overnight snow at 2200m on a NW facing slope. Sun broke through in the afternoon with blue skies, temperatures increasing from 2c.

During a very cold ladies ride it was observed that the common areas are well ridden and very neat down. If you looked for it you could find some powder in hidden areas. Most areas where we rode was hard and windblown snow.

Very cold and windy morning down bellow. Warmed up but was still very windy in the alpine. Lots of evidence of human triggered sz2 avalanches on high alpine aspects >35 degrees. Few natural sz2 natural avalanches from cornice breaks and shallow snow areas with high alpine start zones were noticed as well. Snow was brutal, very wind affected concrete type snow. Any fresh snow got blown around the mountain pretty good.

North End of Danger Basin on South East face below rock outcrop, 30meters wide and runout was 100 meters long. Slab thickness estimated at 60 to 80cm. This was the only sign of instability in the area that was visible. Clouds on the West side of the ridge with strong winds, temperature was significantly warmer on the East side with minimal clouds and areas with sun.

Mostly clear skies allowed us to see the widespread wind damage from the Friday/Saturday storm. The alpine has been absolutely hammered, but sheltered features at and below treeline have up to 25 cm of tasty pow. Dug a hole in a rather flat treeline feature at 2000 m, but couldn't get Jan 18/19 to preform. Feels like Moderate hazard in the alpine and treeline where it's probably possible to trigger a wind slab in complex/gnarly terrain, but she feels low below treeline. We rode as such, leaving nothing but tracks and laughs from creek to peak.

Steady snowfall for most of the day and fairly warm. We found some very good powder and kept our terrain fairly low angle with all the new storm snow.

Amazing day of sailing the storm. 45cms of storm snow at upper treeline provided some great riding. Shooting cracks on almost every convexity, several whumps.....the snowpack is not happy right now. Was a great day to stick to low angle terrain. Alpine winds were moderate from the SW but gusting extreme at times. Precip varied from 1cm per hour to 3cms per hour throughout the day. New precip mixed with winds quickly covered most tracks. Check out Frozenpirate on facebook to see a quick video observation from today. Ride safe and enjoy this new snow.

An interesting unexpected avalanche event in the Norther extent of the Monashees. This particular bowl received significant loading from snow and winds.This large size 3-4 avalanche reached the road at km 20. Several other avalanhes ran into the lower tracks, no others came close to the road.

Feels like forever since the last significant reload. Conditions have been quite windy lately. Today we had sustained moderate ridgetop winds from the south/sw. Most open terrain has been affected by the wind in one way or another. Alpinebtemps -5 at 1200hrs. No significant warming today. No avalanche activity or signs of instability noted.

Very large avalanche in the wind tunnel area of Clemina Creek. Unknown timing or triger process. Unknown is anyone was cought or injured. Visability very poor unable to take pictures. Very large likely size 5

No signs or sounds of settlement . 150 cm snow pack in sub alpine. Dug a quick pit before dropping in. the bottom 40 cm were faceted but stable. No sign of the December Hoar where we dug. Conditions were better than anticipated with 10-20 on a supportive base.

Test profile on a NE aspect 2500m. We found an HS of 220cm. Air temp of -8.0. Testing produced sudden collapse results down 20cm (CTH23(sc)dwn 20cm on 4mm SH) and 65cm (CTH28(sc)dwn 65cm on 4-5mm SH/Fc). Both results were repeated. Extended column test produced a full block failure on the deeper 65cm SH/Fc combo (ECTP23 dwn 65cm on 4-5mm SH/Fc). We also did a test profile a SW aspect with similar elevations and HS however we did not see any notable results.

Limited travel today. Vis affected by cloud cover and daily objectives.

Hey guys, we held an AST - 1 course up Clemina Creek today and saw all kinds of activity! On the approach up to the cabin we notice point release avalanches on the SE aspects in the alpine on moderate to steep slopes. We also noticed size 1 to 2 slab avalanches on NE aspects at alpine on moderate to steep slopes. It looked wind loaded at the trigger points that set off multiple slopes below. At 1500 meters we dug our first pit on a small no risk 26 degree slope. We parked on the trail and walked to it. The whole feature whumpfed and cracked along the top as we got onto it. We dug multiple Compression Tests and got Medium 12 results on the December 15 Surface Hoar with Sudden Planner fails. Out side Temp was -12C and 30cm's down was -5.6C. Our Extended Column Test propagated also on the December 15 Surface Hoar. Height of snow was 115cm at that location with 15 to 20cm of fresh unconsolidated snow on top of the tracked up snowpack. Keep your head on a swivel the next few days as temperatures warm. Be aware of what and who's above you. Watch out for terrain traps as small unsupported slops could cause havoc.