East Purcell

Evidence of recent widespread avalanche cycle. The south face of Mt Brewer and the entire ridge to the west had avalanched - from a distance it looked like it had run almost to ground. A gully from the ridge to the north above the meadow had debris in it which almost reached the meadow. From below this feature does not even look like an avalanche path (see photo). Definitely worth keeping an eye on overhead hazards. We stayed on low angle slopes. Ski quality was excellent with no evidence of the recent wind event in the Columbia Valley.

Roughly 100 cm of snow in the meadows below Brewer at 2200 m. About 20 cm of soft faceted powder above some firmer layers in the middle and very weak snow in the bottom. Some alpine slopes looked wind loaded. We did not see any recent avalanches.

Still very shallow in this part of the eastern Purcells with an average of 70 cm at 2200 m and up to 140 cm in a deeper loaded pocket. In most areas the entire snowpack was soft and faceted, while some of the deeper pockets had some firmer and semi-supportive layers in the middle of the snowpack. Saw some debris from two size 1 avalanche in east facing alpine terrain, likely a day or two old.

Very large (10 mm) surface hoar sitting on crust. Widespread in Delphine valley. Buried overnight Jan 21 by 2 cm new snow.

Conditions were okay at mount bruce today

We went to a small Cut block on Toby Creek Rd just past Panorama. there was a small crust on top that was formed from the recent low elevation melt freeze cycle.

Conditions were good on the cutblock across from panorama. Snow depth anywhere from 100-120cm at 1450m. The snow was surprisingly stable, only a minor risk with the top 26cm from this last week.

The Dec 2 crust is very hard and supportive with 20 cm of low density new snow on top bonding poorly. It was mostly calm at tree line during the day with occasional gusts. Could not see the alpine. Snowpack test CTH21 SC down 60 failed on V2

Quite wind loaded on top with small (1-2mm) moderately faceted crystals. Very faceted large (3+mm) crystals at fail level and to the base. Failed where suspected surface hoar level was. Rain crust at 75cm down I’m guessing that’s the early December rain crust. 30 hits to fail with a heavy block sliding off. All the snow from the recent storms have made a nice layer to ski on but sketchy once you look below it

CT 5 easy 30cm down stormsnow on crust and 12 moderate collapse of facet layer below crust. Not inspiring for going higher into bigger open glades. Lots of shooting cracks and semi difficult trail breaking

Excellent couple days of skiing in Paradise Basin. The powder stayed dry even on solar aspects at high elevations today making for great laps down south east facing slopes. We tried a lap down a north aspect in the alpine too but recent northerly winds had created a one inch thick breakable windslab on top of low density facetted snow which equalled horrible skiing. The weather was perfect with light southerly winds, cold temps and lots of sunshine. No signs of instability or recent avalanches in the area other than some small cornice failures and loose dry sluffs.

Toured up Delphine Creek Road to Delphine Glades today. The slide path and nearby glades right of the trail (West facing slope) had roughly 65 cm coverage. We dug a snow pit which showed a weak layer around 45 cm deep. This layer gave upon 10th full-arm pat during a 30 x 90 propagation snowpack test, with some limited propagation at this layer. Skiing showed no slab reaction and the snow felt well structured. Sun affected at higher elevation where we decided to stop and ski down.

Frequent sluffing on sunny slopes and a few very small avalanches about 10x10 feet in size on the last ice layer (20-30 cm down).

Evidence of small natural cycle up to size 1.5 on northeast aspects from Fri/Sat storm event (30 cm HST). Likely started as small cornice or loose dry failures that then triggered soft wind slabs. Riders from today rode through debris and low in path on adjacent slopes with no results.

Climbed Mt.Goldie then skied down into the East Fork drainage on the east side. We saw sev size 1 slabs on south to west facing aspects in the area all around the 2000m elevation range and all on open patches below treeline. All slabs appeared to be 1-3 days old. The high alpine (2600m) had been wind affected with a mix of hard and soft slabs and even some scouring down to the old rain crust. Treeline had no wind affect at all and foot penetration was 50-80cm leaving lots of very low density snow for the next wind event. Experienced some whumphing and cracking on our way out below 2000m in the trees.

4F facets observed between 90-90 cm over glacier ice.

Sledding most of the day, few snowboard runs, backcountry south of Panorama Ski Resort, in the Purcells. We tried to play safe, avoiding steep and convex slopes as much as possible. I mean as much as possible. Riding east facing slopes most of the day, with not much sun exposure on the slopes. At the end of the day around 3pm, we moved to another bowl, mostly south facing. With the snowmobile, my friend went pretty high reaching the summit in the alpine, high marking. Then a big fracture occurred, causing a 20-30 cm slab. Myself and the 2 other friends at the bottom quickly went to a safe spot. No one got hurt. Scary event.