Went for a ride after work. +8 at 600m, -1 at 1900m at 5pm. Snow was wet and slushy up to 1600m, transitioned to sticky until 1750m, then powder above that. North and east slopes rode great in trees. Lots of small loose wet slides on south and west facing slopes. Be prepared to ride extended sections of gravel if you're going up FSR's this time of year.

Skied alpine and TL terrain on NE to NW aspects from 2350m to 2000m in the selkirks, east of the kokanee range. 15-25cm of new snow fell in the April 1st storm, forming a soft unreactive 4F slab. Evidence of natural windslab activity during the storm from this new snow in immediate ridgetop lees. HN produced loose dry with skier traffic, that arrested in steep terrain and didn't entrain more mass. 1 suspected skier accidental persistent slab occured, see avalanche description.

Conditions on N/NE/NW terrain was excellent. Also made a video about how we've been staying patient most of the season, but using the Daily Process to now step into bigger terrain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LEUNe0ZTRA

We explored Crusader Creek for the first time today (thanks to Nelson Sno-goers for great access conditions. Toured up to 2100 m above the cabin. Ski conditions were good, a little crusty with 10 cm of soft snow over top. Lots of refrozen tree bombs were a little hazardous. We dug on a SE aspect at 2050m, and found hard planar results on column test for two surface hoar layers in the upper 70 cm. But no results on ECT. The snowpack seemed well bonded apart from the weak loose facets at the base. The surface snow was moist below 1700 m. No recent avalanche activity apart from size 2's in the south facing paths above the access road - likely caused by the warm temperatures previously.

Dug pit at 2070m 26° slope ne aspect at top of tl. Cth 25 sp 45 down Cth 24 100 down Ectn 22 45down All on old surface hoar interfaces, 100 down was still 3mm+

Submission by the Kokanee Cabin Custodian. I have been very impressed with this self-guided group and their terrain selection this past week. They have been very disciplined by sticking to terrain under 30 degrees and avoiding overhead exposure. Although avalanches have been remotely triggered (50-250m away) almost every day, there have been no involvements. If interested, I also uploaded a video to the Kootenay Avalanche Courses YouTube Channel, further describing yesterday's large avalanches: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTMfxxWAPxAO0YNzwmS1SmA

We saw many recent natural avalanches in avy paths along the way up. Also we easily set off slab avalanches on small banks along the road. Conditions are spicy and very reactive.

the snowpack test results was enough red flags for us to make a decision to turn around and not traverse across the slope. Read further for snowpack results on the next tab...

Noticed a good amount of whumpfing on approach. Mostly in open canopy treeline and on shaded undulating slopes. One instance of a widespread settlement or large whumpf around 2000m on undulating terrain resulted in a “dropping” sensation to some members of our party while touring up and trees appeared to snow bomb up to 30ft away giving us the feeling that remote triggering would be very likely. Riding down we noticed pillows and trees would settle and slough/ drop snow either upon approach or while we passed, occurring anywhere between 5-20ft away. We rode one of two lower angles and well supported avi paths, the adjacent avi path with a well defined steep cliff appeared to have an old slide on it, 60-80cm crown that ran about 60m, or the entirety of the steep pitch and deposited in the creek draw below the pitch. Snow is very cold and slow, inspiring travel into higher and steeper terrain but the avi conditions present would suggest otherwise!

snow quality was amazing and preserved at treeline. We traveled between BTL to 2100M. We witnessed many storm slab (approx 30-40cm) releases on convex unsupported rolls between 1700m - 2100m on what Im guessing was the Dec 5 SH interface. Lots of shooting cracks and whumpfs were also observed. There was a rise in temperature as sun came out but it stayed below freezing level between 1700m and 2100m for the day.