Glacier National Park, British Columbia

Saturday January 23rd Parks Canada, 1 hour ago Forecast Lookout Col - AST 2 13 hours ago Observation We departed the Illecillewaet parking lot at 8:30 am and headed up the Great Glacier Trail to the bottom of the moraine features. We stayed on the central ridge until we reached an altitude of 1950m. We directly climbed the last 200m on the slope under Lookout Col. Camp West 14 hours ago Observation Toured up McGill to ski Camp West from its upper entrance. Along the ridge was somewhat wind affected, and the first few turns were a bit variable. On the way down we noticed there was a sun crust was present on micro terrain features that were a little steeper and directly S-facing. 2 photos Mt Green 16 hours ago Observation Our AST 2 group skied the North Face of Mt Green today. We found predominantly wind affected powder in the alpine and scoured ridgetops. Below treeline we had nice powder down to the highway. We had no avalanche concerns today and we did not observe any windslabs. 1 photos Friday January 22nd Parks Canada, 1 day ago Forecast Ursus Minor SE Couloir 1 day ago Observation Wonderful day up Ursus Minor and down its SE face/couloir. We went up Hospital Bowl onto the Ursus Minor Shoulder. Uptrack delivered a ski penetration of 10-15cm over a variety of snow from dry powder to wind-affected snow. Youngs Peak Cornice Failures 1 day ago Observation Avalanche observation by borjamoncunill, seen near Glacier National Park, reported on Thu 21st Jan, 2021 11:45AM 2 photos Shelf - Chromosome Linkup 1 day ago Observation -13C at trailhead at the start of the day. Maybe -5C (if not warmer) at the top of our rappel. -10C back at the car. 8 photos North Face of Video Peak 1 day ago Observation Today during an AST 2 we skied the North Face of Video Peak and then 8812 bowl. The North Face of Video Peak was a mix of breakable wind crust and chalky snow, with no windslabs observed. 8812 Bowl was amazing fast powder, becoming moist near the bottom. 1 photos Thursday January 21st Parks Canada, 2 days ago Forecast Video/8812 2 days ago Observation Was blessed with first tracks down video today. Wind filled in all of yesterday's tracks and made for some pretty spectacular skiing. Stability was good, top 5-10cm sluffing in steeper terrain but nothing beyond that. Followed up with a lap down 8812 which had even more wind deposits. 2 photos TAP Ski Guide Exam observations 2 days ago Observation We spent the last 3 days travelling in the Rogers Pass on part 2 of our Ski Guide Exam. Jan 18 - We skied up to 8812 col and off the backside and ascended to the N shoulder of Ursus Major. 3 photos Youngs Peak 2 days ago Observation Today our AST 2 group bailed on Plan A in the parking lot due to 10-15cm of new snow with strong winds in the alpine overnight and yesterday. Instead we walked up the Asulkan Valley to see if we could make it up Youngs Peak. 2 photos Wednesday January 20th Parks Canada, 3 days ago Forecast Cheops wind slab 3 days ago Observation Misread terrain, skied hard into a convex drop, slab released at skiers feet and propagated about 40m to the east. 1 photos Grizzly Couloir 3 days ago Observation Strong W winds during the climb on the S face. Snow felt solid with enough penetration to skin all the way to the ridge. Snow in the couloir was compacted from wind and previous tracks, but still had nice soft pockets on the more sheltered side (skier's right). 2 photos The Balu highway 3 days ago Observation Extremely busy day in the pass. Multiple large groups and a very passive aggressive guide. Most of the parking lots were full and so we decided to do a mellow Balu pass day. Overall good skiing. The wind was strong with extreme gusts from the SW which was transporting on to lee NE slopes all day. 2 photos Hermit Path 3 days ago Observation Great day in the Hermit, the plan was to go for the South Face of Roger's, but we didnt want to battle the brutal high altitude winds, so we rode the Hermit Path from the top of the Lizards Tail @2400m. Great cold powder up until the very bottom creek section. Tuesday January 19th Parks Canada, 4 days ago Forecast McGill Shoulder 4 days ago Observation Today during an Advanced Decision Making Course we skinned up to the top of the “Camp West Full” slide path as described in Douglas’ book, then skied off the backside towards the NW and finished up by skiing one of the main slide paths on McGill Shoulder. 1 photos Bruins Glacier/Ursus Major 4 days ago Observation Convective clouds provided intermittent flurries especially at elevations below 2400m 1 photos Monday January 18th Parks Canada, 5 days ago Forecast Dogleg couloir 5 days ago Observation Really good skiing conditions in the couloir! It's been skied quite regularly and we had about 15cm of fresh snow over the bed surface. Sluffing was easy to manage and it didn't get a lot of momentum, although I was expecting way more. No signs of instabilities or wind effect where we were. 2 photos Fortitude Ridge Point 2146 East Face 5 days ago Observation 7cm overnight at Fidelity. The Illecillewaet River crossing is not in so bring your waders. Rain crust under 10cm of new snow until 1150m, especially hard under dense trees but we didn't use ski crampons even though we had them with us. 1 photos Sunday January 17th Parks Canada, 6 days ago Forecast Little Sifton Traverse 6 days ago Observation Toured to the summit of Little Sifton and skied to the highway through the northernmost gulley. Noticed buried sun crust ~6cm deep in some areas on the way up Grizzly shoulder. Snow on the E face of Little Sifton was wind compacted, but with no cracking or whumpfing. Overlook Bowl to Avalanche Crest 6 days ago Observation Today during an Advanced Decision Making Course, we skinned up to the Sir Donald Bivy, then up and over into Overlook Bowl, then back up to Avalanche Crest and down to the highway. 2 photos Saturday January 16th Parks Canada, 1 week ago Forecast Bruins Ridge and 8812 Bowl 1 week ago Observation Dug a pit on a 22 degree East facing slope just south of Bruin’s ridge. Failure on CTE 6, resistant planar, roughly 50cm down (storm snow). Storm slab broke into two consolidated pieces, approximately 15 cm above the main fracture. Deeper layers did not react. ECT showed no propagation. 3 photos Puff Daddy 1 week ago Observation Avalanche observation by luketasker1, seen near Glacier National Park, reported on Fri 15th Jan, 2021 8:00AM 1 photos Connaught and Lookout Slidepaths 1 week ago Observation 3-5 cm of new snow over a thin breakable rain crust that disappeared at 1250m. Above that was 30 cm ski penetration in average but up to 40cm in very sheltered locations. Boot penetration was 50cm at 1600m. 2 photos Friday January 15th Parks Canada, 1 week ago Forecast Grizzly Shoulder 1 week ago Observation Moist surface snow and New sun crust formed on Grizzly shoulder by 3pm. Observed from 1500m-2000 on S and SW aspects. The SE skied well as we traversed out skiers Left. No storm slab concerns BTL in non wind affected terrain. 2 photos Connaught Creek 1 week ago Observation We skied in today Connaught Creek today to check out conditions after the storm. We started by going up to Bruins Pass and skiing 8812 Bowl. 3 photos Quartz Creek 1 week ago Observation A couple of remote triggers today while riding ridges above convex or steep slopes. 30-50 cm deep on surface hoar. They ran fast. North facing slopes at 2300 m. Ran size 1-2. Terrain limited running any larger. Play safe. 2 photos Amazing skiing today 1 week ago Observation We skied in today Connaught Creek today to check out conditions after the storm. We started by going up to Bruins Pass and skiing 8812 Bowl. 3 photos Human and natural avalanches at Quartz 1 week ago Observation Observed several small to medium sized slab avalanches at around 2100m on North aspect slopes. Dug at one of the fracture lines and found the failure to be on surface hoar crystals over a very thin crust. 2 photos Thursday January 14th Parks Canada, 1 week ago Forecast Wednesday January 13th Parks Canada, 1 week ago Forecast Ursus Major Trees 1 week ago Observation Good powder in the trees below Ursus Major. Snowing S1-S2 non-stop all day with light winds from the S-SW going to moderate at ridgetops (Balu Pass). Natural cycling in STS couloir (NE): Sz 2 dry loose that ran 100m and 50m wide from nearby cliffs with start zone at 1800-1900m. Ran on HST. Tuesday January 12th Parks Canada, 1 week ago Forecast MacDonald Gully #2 1 week ago Observation We snuck in a quick lap on MacDonald Gully #2 this morning before the hazard picked up. Lots of skier triggered sluffing on slopes over 40 degrees that hadn’t previously sluffed or avalanched. There were some cornices overhanging the gully. Monday January 11th Parks Canada, 1 week ago Forecast Grizzly Couloir 1 week ago Observation Small .5 when skier began to traverse the slope. Sunday January 10th Parks Canada, 1 week ago Forecast Dome Col 1 week ago Observation CT easy 8 @ 15 cm PC, CT moderate 14 @ 30cm, CT hard @ 110cm SP. Did multiple tests with 2/4 triggering Dec 26 layer. Mellow skiing over balu pass 1 week ago Observation Mellow day skiing some untouched snow out past balu pass, under christmas couloir. Snow was good but had a bit of a wind crust in spots 3 photos Saturday January 9th Parks Canada, 2 weeks ago Forecast Youngs Peak 2 weeks ago Observation While skiing down we noticed fresh tracks on the Thorington Face (Leda) from a party that triggered a size 1 slab half way down. Forever Young 2 weeks ago Observation We got to forever young couloir at around 2pm. The slope looked pristine and buttery! The perfect skiing conditions. No signs of sluffing, or debris of any kind all the way from top to bottom. 3 photos Avalanche crest & moraines - SPLITFEST 2 weeks ago Observation Dug a pit at approx 1950m on a SSE aspect below avalanche moraines. No failures observed on CT. Did a shovel shear on the column to see if we could trigger a release - SP failure approx 80cm down (assumed Dec 26 layer). Perley rock 2 weeks ago Observation Skied up Perley Rock, dropping in skiers right. Quite a few other parties in the area. Saw a mix of new and old looking avalanche activity, most noticeably a reasonably new looking size 2 midway down the northeast flanks of castor and pollux originating in a steep cliffed area in the glacier. 2 photos