Kakwa

We arrived to Kakwa with a forecast for low avalanche hazard at all elevations. 10cm of well settled snow, a crust on southerly slopes, a sturdy midpack and no signs of wind meant we felt confident we wouldn’t see much more that a few loose avalanches (loose wet of sunny slopes, loose dry in the shade). After verifying the 3x Low forecast, we made the shift to “Open Season” and felt good riding anything white. We spent the first day skiing. We hit up a large path on a solar aspect in the late morning just as it turned to corn. Afterwards we moved to a shaded slope to ski powder through the heat of the day. We kept to high elevations and northerly slopes where the snow surface was soft and dry for the next two days while sledding around. This was for travel and enjoyment rather than hazard. We kept to the simple group management rules like one on the slope and meeting in safe regroups but otherwise hit up many of the places we wouldn’t normally go. This dry spell has left a variety of snow surfaces like crusts sunny slopes and surface hoar on shady ones. This may spell bad news when snow finally falls, but for now its “Go, dog. Go!”

Is it worth it? You better believe it! After a long day of driving, we unloaded sleds, gear, fuel, and food from the truck and packed it up in the skimmer. We set off in the fading light to Kakwa Provincial Park arrive under the stars. We woke to a red sunrise; with the storm on its way, we rode out to Mount Ruth area to look at higher elevation terrain before we lost visibility. We saw heavily scoured ridge lines and a couple older wind slabs before the storm rolled in. It wasn't long until the strengthening winds had us retreating to lower, more sheltered areas at tree line or below. Over the next 2 days we received 30cm of snow with strong to extreme winds from the southwest. Storm and wind slabs in combination with poor visibility kept us out of the alpine, but we found excellent riding in both open and dense trees. Even hanging out in the trees there were signs of windslabs (shooting cracks) in many small openings and storm slabs (size 1 avalanche) in sheltered areas. We focused on good communications and keeping close tabs on each other while enjoying what the storm delivered.

We spent the last few days out riding in Kakwa Provincial Park. On our way in we noted large feathery crystals (surface hoar) along the Walker FSR as far as McGregor Pass but not in the Kakwa riding area. On Saturday we took advantage of low hazard and good visibility to ride larger slopes high in the alpine in the Babette and Mt Ruth areas. There was an array of hard surfaces from the long dry period and we had to look hard to find softer snow on sheltered slopes. We saw signs of large avalanches in steep, rocky terrain from last weekend’s warm up but no recent activity. Late in the day a storm rolled in and poor visibility pushed us down to the trees. The storm was still slowly improving the riding on Sunday. The hazard was increasing the new snow falling on a hard bed surface and winds forming slabs on northeasterly faces at higher elevations. We changed tactics and searched for lower consequence features in the rolling tree line terrain below Wallbridge Mountain. We watched for shooting cracks and used sled cuts on small steep features to keep an eye on how the hazard changed throughout the storm. We finished the day searching out the deepest snow in small meadows and dense trees below La Glace. In total the storm dropped about 20cm and refreshed the riding nicely. The visibility returned today and we kept a eye out for signs of avalanche activity after the storm. We saw signs of loose dry avalanches in steep rocky terrain and a few small wind slabs in loaded alpine pockets. The ride out was cold and long but very worth it! We can’t wait to go back!

Went for a jaunt up the Forgetmenot FSR and toured up towards Idol Peak. We saw one recent cornice fall that had entrained a lot of snow but didn't trigger a slab. We dug a couple of pits on our way up between 1650m where we parked our sleds and 2100m our high point. We found no significant weak layers and had minimal results in our snowpack tests. On a south aspect at treeline the total snowpack was 120cm and mostly facetted. There was 10-15cm of new snow in the area from the previous couple of days. The skiing was best at treeline and below, unless you're a fan of hardslabs in the alpine. On the ski down we got some isolated shooing cracks in windslab in a steep crossloaded north facing feature at treeline. Otherwise great skiing, lots of faceshots for the dog! It looks like logging crews are done in that zone for the winter as the road is no longer getting plowed.

Deep right side up snow.

Right side up snow. Only heard whumpfing twice in the steep trees below alpine 1700M

Spent an awesome 5 days in Kakwa and rode in a variety of areas in the park. It was stormy pretty much the entire time with daily snowfalls of around 20-30cm. Winds were transporting a lot of snow in the alpine and upper treeline areas creating slabs in lee pockets and building up cornices. Visibility was limited for most of our time there due to the weather, but we saw fresh debris from large avalanches and heard several slides coming down as well. Our snow profiles showed that the storm snow seemed to be bonding well below treeline so our main concern was for steep, open, and wind-loaded slopes in the alpine and treeline. We also avoided hanging out below any large overhanging cornices as we saw lots of evidence of those breaking off and sometimes triggering slides below. We saw no evidence of persistent weak layers in the area, so hopefully once it stops storming and all the new snow finally has a chance to bond for a couple of days, the hazard should go down quickly. In the meantime we founds lots and lots of great riding in safe terrain!

Fresh Snow on the PGSC Kakwa Division trails. Major sluffing on the banks on the side of the trail and that alarmed us to stay away from slopes that day. We rode meadows and trees in the Wishaw Murial Lakes area. Avalanches were sluffing off Wishaw mountain on the steep rock faces. Major wind squalls were travelling through the valley.

Probed the snow depth at the Kakwa Park weather station next to Babette lake. 120cm base heavy snow fall over Thursday and Friday. Wind was affecting the snow on Saturday and Sunday. Snow loaded trees were dropping their snow with wind gusts.

After a decent snowfall and heavy winds it warmed to plus 9 today. I Saw a natural slab release 15ft in front of me with 2-7ft slab walls. We the turned back and took an alternate route vs continuing through the alpine pass.

A few observed small size 1 slides and sluffing. Large (aprox. Size 3) loose dry snow avalanche observed off kakwa lake (pictured). significant new snow load with buried hazards. However, riding in simple terrain is awesome.

Nice day out in Kakwa. Maybe 10 people out sledding. Stayed in simple terrain and took time to play in a few open spots in the trees. 150 cm of snow with a few obvious layers including a hard crust 40cm from the bottom. A few signs of past natural avalanches but not many

80mx80m fracture looked about 60-80cm When the debris hit lake cracked the ice He was 60cm under for 3-4min his legs were under water Thankfully pulled air bag otherwise he would been under water

Hs 165. Very strong winds with heavy loading of leeward slopes. CTE 1 RP down 110 cm on thick facet layer. Wind slab down to 26 cm non reactive due to the CTE 1.

!!!!!!Very benign weather for three days - cold, cloudy with some sun, calm winds.