Elkford West

Late season visit to Elkford today. We found about 15 cm of soft snow from the weekend over a couple of crusts. The snow was sticking to the crusts well and was unreactive in our tests. The snow was dry all day as well. We saw no new avalanches. There was some fun riding to be had on north aspects where the upper crust was a bit softer. It was starting to snow in the afternoon and intensified on our drive home. Maybe tomorrow will be a surprise powder day!

Headed up to Mear Lake today with light hearts, having seen the overnight low of minus ten (-10 ! …. mid April!) ….. we were disappointed with the freeze however. We figured that the 10 cm of recent soft snow had insulated that 20 cm of moist snow from Monday’s rain event. Once the sun came around, we saw numerous Loose Wet avalanches to Size 1.5 on steeper sunny slopes in the Alpine and at Treeline. We also saw numerous older Wet Loose avalanches up to size 2.5 from Sunday / Monday /Tuesday Winds were calm all day, with no evidence of wind in the recent soft snow. Skiing was good in the shady places we could find, where we enjoyed 10cm dry snow. Those places were up at treeline and as low as 1900 m in the full shade (full north, or in shady mature forest). The groomed trail from Round Prairie was pretty boney for the first couple of km’s, and we heard that the Overflow route was mostly grass …..

Sunny day today north of Sparwood in the Nordstrom area. We didn’t need the ski crampons that we brought thanks to 10 to 15 cm of recent snow that made the travel on south facing slopes better than expected. This new snow started to become moist as we were leaving the field making the ski down a little grabby but still fun.  We had great visibility and didn’t see any new avalanche activity but there was evidence of older cornice-triggered slabs. North facing slopes were still soft and dry. There was almost no wind, and temperatures at 2200 m were -5 with some cloud.

Photos from a friend riding into Smith Basin. They encountered a big slide that ran across the trail at the first chute. They were first tracks onto the slide so it probably came down late the day before.

In Elkford today we found the wind at work up high. Recent new snow was being transported by moderate to strong northwest winds. We were getting shooting cracks on wind slabs built over the past few days at treeline and open ridge features. There were a few natural size 1 to 1.5 wind slab avalanches from steep terrain features. Temperatures were still cold with -19 at 2300 m, at our profile location where we had no significant test results. Cornices are large and looming and with the wind affect in open terrain we decided to ski a sheltered terrain feature where the skiing was really good.

Today at Mear Lake area we found 5 to 10 cm of soft snow at 2300 m that skied pretty well, thanks to a consolidated layer 35 cm deep that was supportive to our skis. Below this layer we found a generally faceted snowpack that is working hard to round (get stronger) but it isn’t there quite yet. Down 80 cm there were some larger facets that we decided to test with a PST (Propagation Saw Test). We had a failure (45/100) that suggests propagation and slab avalanches on this layer are possible. We didn’t have great visibility but did notice that cornices are growing in this area and are overhanging and unsupported.

Rained to 2000 m. Snowing above but still wet. No avalanche activity observed.

Found fresh slabs on all open terrian on north,south and east aspects. Headed for tall Timber were the skiing was a lot better then open terrian.

Nice sunny day in Mear Lake area. We saw some natural slab avalanches in the alpine most likely dating from the weekend. We were curious to see how the persistant weak layer was doing there, so we dug a pit around 2000m. We found the mid-nov weak layer (surface hoar down 50 cm) and it was still quite reactive to our snowpack tests. Boo. Above the weak layer is a windslab that is either hidden by soft snow in protected areas or exposed in the alpine. We felt that it was a good idea to stay away from steep alpine areas, especially where the windslab would vary in thickness (see how the fracture of the avalanche picture posted goes from thin to thick).

Today in Elkford we found a generally weak and faceted (sugary) snowpack. At Mear Lake (2050m) we found 125 cm snow depths. the most recent snow was light and fluffy (low density) and the past few storms have accumulated 20 - 30cm. We also found a weak layer ( a surface hoar and facet mix) that was reactive to snowpack tests down 55cm. (ECTP (16) down 55 cm on SH/FC). There was limited visibility into the alpine but suspect that light to moderate winds was redistributing the most recent snow at upper elevations directly lee of high points. With this mostly unconsolidated snowpack, early-season hazards are still lurking.

The strong crust when all the way to the top at Nordstrom and was supportive to our boots walking around. There was about 5 cm of recent snow overtop that had been blown around and loaded the opposite slopes to normal. We found up to 20 cm of stubborn wind slab in immediate lee areas at ridge top, and this area had a big area that wind could strip snow from. The wind slab wasn't moving easily and gave non sudden results in our pit. The best riding was on low angle slopes where you could avoid the crust a bit.

Slapped on some sunscreen and headed to Elkford to see how the sun and warm temperatures have been affecting the snowpack. The 5 cm of new snow was still dry and skiing okay on north facing terrain around 2300 m, but we could still feel some recent breakable temperature crusts underfoot. On south facing terrain at the same elevation the new snow was moist and loosing cohesion, especially in steep thin spots around rocks. It was still early in the day but we failed to trigger any wet loose avalanches on a couple of convexities we pushed. Recent evidence of natural cornice triggered avalanches were a great reminder to steer clear of overhead hazard. With little wind, warm temperatures, and clear skies, we didn’t want to be around when the next cycle of loose wet avalanche activity started either, so we ended our trip plan early.

We checked out a new to us spot in the KoKo Claims area today. The majority of the surfaces were wind affected likely from light to moderate winds yesterday. There were no shooting cracks and the slab width was 5 - 10 cm at treeline but we suspect it may be a bit deeper in the alpine. Solar facing slopes have a 3 - 5cm melt-freeze crust from warm temps and clear skies before the last 10 - 15 cm of new snow and a new wafer-thin crust was forming on the surface. Cool temperatures and light west winds were keeping the surface snow dry through the day.