Nass

Skied Wolf's Den today. It was snowing to the highway but this storm definitely came in both warmer and windier than the last few. Roughly 15cms of new snow by midday but it was hard to say for sure because of wind transport. Widespread windslabs were forming throughout the morning in open areas on the west-facing terrain at Wolf's Den. Ski quality was good but continued wind might make it worse.

Today we skied north of Terrace at Inbetweeners, travelling on west and southwest slopes at treeline and below. We had poor visibility, strong southwesterly winds in open areas and at ridgecrest, and continued snow throughout the day. We didn’t see any new avalanches but we didn’t see much! We avoided lee slopes (north and east facing slopes) where we suspect wind slabs have formed. On west facing slopes, near the top of treeline, we found 20 to 35 cm of soft slab over a stiffer older wind affected surface. It was easy to break off hand shears up to 35 cm deep at this interface, however we experienced no cracking or whumpfing. We found the late January rain crust 105 cm deep. We had good skiing in the trees in sheltered areas where winds had not effected the surface snow. We found 10 cm of new snow below treeline over a thin, breakable crust. This crust exists up to about 1000 m.

Today we sled-skied near Terrace and experienced strong southwesterly winds and continued light snow throughout the day. We didn’t see any new avalanches but as we neared ridgecrest and open areas in the treeline we were able to get shooting cracks 15 cm deep. We dug at 1200 m on a west facing slope and found 350 cm total snow depth. We were able to produce compression test results 40 cm with moderate loading steps that progressively compressed underneath the shovel blade. The January 28 rain crust is 165 cm deep showing just how much storm snow we have had in the last few weeks! There are some small facets above the rain crust but we did not get any results on this layer. There is another rain crust from during the storm cycle last week that exists up to 950 m. It is breakable makes travel and skiing/riding below this elevation quite challenging.

highly variable snow, wet and heavy in the trees, treeline observed some debris , and alpine wind effected. No observed signs of instability, or recent slides. Ski tracks still left from several days before. Still fun walk up and a few nice turns, logging road fully covered to the hwy.

In the cloud all day. 15-20cm new, little to no snow most of morning/afternoon, S-1 in early afternoon. Light wind from west. Some wind effect in upper few cm. Excellent ski quality in general.

Incredible skiing for the major part of the descent before a little bit of stickiness down below. Snow showers and recent storms brought fresh snow for the whole upper part of the mountain. Travel was good and easy. No signs of cornice failures or other avalanche activity. One glide crack on the southeast aspect of the west alpine bowl. Fresh (and big) grizzly tracks on the logging road leading to the route.

Checked out the Wesach area today. We encountered strong winds and blowing snow in the alpine. There was spindrift blowing around and new windslabs were being created. The snow on the north aspects had a thin wind slab crust that skied reasonably well. In the super sheltered alpine there were pockets of cold preserved low density snow but they were few and far between.

Another bluebird and calm day on the Coast! We saw one size 2 slab avalanche that appeared to be triggered by cornice fall and had run all the way to the bottom of a bowl. This is a good reminder to give avalanche paths a wide berth when skinning up to your objective. Otherwise, we found a supportive melt-freeze crust on the surface up to the top of the peak (1750m) on solar aspects. On shady aspects above 1300m there is about 5cm of cold, new snow. Sunny aspects softened throughout the day and made for great corn skiing!

Today we snowmobiled at Sterling and found cloudy and calm conditions. The rain crust caps the surface of the snowpack everywhere here, and is 10cm thick at lower elevations, and 30cm thick at upper elevations. It’s supportive to sleds everywhere. We saw a trace of snow throughout the day, with a freezing level around 600m. We saw no new avalanche activity. We did find a glide crack that was 3m deep at the bottom of a small, steep slope. We expect this happened during last weeks’ rain event, and is not so relevant to current conditions, but interesting nonetheless! We did not get an Extended Column Test(ECT) result, but we did get a resistant failure on hard hits on a Compression Test(CT) at the interface between the crust and the old snow (ECT X, CT H 22 RP down 30cm). The snow is dry. There are several other crusts 80-100cm deep in the snowpack but we did not see any results on these and it is unlikely that you would break through the surface crust to trigger deeper layers right now.

Today we snowmobiled at Sterling and found cloudy and calm conditions. The rain crust caps the surface of the snowpack everywhere here, and is 10cm thick at lower elevations, and 30cm thick at upper elevations. It’s supportive to sleds everywhere. We saw a trace of snow throughout the day, with a freezing level around 600m. We saw no new avalanche activity. We did find a glide crack that was 3m deep at the bottom of a small, steep slope. We expect this happened during last weeks’ rain event, and is not so relevant to current conditions, but interesting nonetheless! We did not get an Extended Column Test(ECT) result, but we did get a resistant failure on hard hits on a Compression Test(CT) at the interface between the crust and the old snow (ECT X, CT H 22 RP down 30cm). The snow is dry. There are several other crusts 80-100cm deep in the snowpack but we did not see any results on these and it is unlikely that you would break through the surface crust to trigger deeper layers right now.

jan22: terrible for anything skiing related. The only great thing was the temporary weather break/clearing during uphill walk /outing in the park, but no so much after 1pm for the downhill part to trailhead. horrendous uphill trail breaking with heavy snow (under freezing lvl) / 1cm breakable crust (above freezing lvl) over and under the skis. overnight rain created the new 1cm crust over 4 fingers on glacier & up to just below ridgetops. gave up finding the snowline. saw some size2 na at ridgetop SW startzones in distance. snowball pinwheels everywhere. saw some mature hemlock trees snapping its own trunk from all the heavy snow weight on itself. Terrace region is gameover for the next little while until the next avy cycle cleans up this big giant mess. turns around at glacier toe and went hotspringing was the wiser thing to do instead.

Tweener area still giving up some goods with fresh lines still able to be made. Light to no wind up to 1400 m's. -15 in the valley but felt warmer up high in the sun. No new avi's seen. Slight wind effected snow at peak from ? Days gone by. Old tracks still visible. Surface hoar up to 10 mm growing on the recent 5 cm's of freshish snow that is faceting in the cold clear with no wind (that sits on facets and ? SH) all over the lower slopes like a SH farm. Hundreds of feet if it. Might get interesting with a load of fresh snow.

A proper mixed-bag spring day in North Terrace, started off in the sun and found a 2cm breakable crust to 950m where the crust finally gave way to wind pressed styrofoam. Temps were warm up to 900m which thankfully melted the crust for our egress. Some clouds moved in with ridge top winds and kept the alpine snow cool. We saw widespread storm slab crowns (size 1.5-2) on the NNW aspect, all starting near ridge top @1400m and running about 1/2 path, no sign of stepping down to older layers. No concerning instability found on our objective (West face) but moderate planar results in a hasty pit down 20 and 25 cm- above and below a 5cm 4 finger density slab

Wildly variable from dense, cohesive windslab to melt/freeze crust to powder. Windslab very reactive to ski cutting and propagates widely.

Great day breaking trail up glacier peak. Small Wind slabs are present in localized areas (cross loading) and wind crust on ridges and peaks. Minor snow balling from solar radiation observed around south facing rock cliffs. 5 mm surface hoar observed below tree line in areas sheltered from wind.

Strong winds nearing the top of wolf's den made any new snow very slabby. Very reactive where it was deep enough to react, like in little pockets on the up track. Main run was shaveable crust to 10cm of slabby wet pow. Snowing heavily turning to rain by 500m elevation, noon hour. Opted out of gaining the ridge due to very strong wind, steepening terrain and potential for bigger pieces of slabby snow.

Spring day at South Douglas, snow refrozen grains in the early am, turning to corn mid morning. Lots of loose wet slide activity observed on sunny slopes, evidence of previous avalanches to size 2 on wind loaded slopes sometime after last snowfall. Had some settling/whumphing at ridge top on +/- flat terrain at 1550m, dug a pit at approx 1450m above a steep north aspect, HS 200cm, top 5cm wet grains, three significant crust layers down 25, 50 and 60cm, all well bonded with inconsistent results between CTH 20-25 across two columns. Morw interesting was a 4th crust down 100cm with 15 cms of fist density facets below which yielded a CTM 12, sudden collapse. Although the upper pack was well consolidated, and the concerning layer quite deep, the rapid warming led us to avoid steep terrain. Had some nice spring turns and a great day in the mountains.

Wolf's Den today after getting denied by deep snow at another "usually popular" trailhead. Tracks from last weekends ski massacre were still visible. 4 finger windslab present all the way down to Below treeline. Low hanging alder branches along the access road are providing some top quality face shots at the moment.

Beautiful day at Wolf's Den today. Here is the route we took from the snowmobile http://bit.ly/2rKVPiP approximately 30cm of snow sits on the Jan. 16 crust. Surface hoar is prevalent on most treeline features. Calm wind except for ridgetops where it was light today.

Good visibility, yet no avalanches observed. 10-15 cm new snow overlies last weeks breakable temperature/rain crust. Surface hoar observed in snow profile on N aspect at treeline down approximately 20 cm giving moderate, sudden planar (pops) results in two compression tests. The mid-December rain crust was noted down approximately 50 cm. Snow immediately above and below crust is faceted and weak (4 finger resistance). Facets on both sides of the crust produced inconsistent hard, sudden collapse (drops) results in multiple compression tests.

Skied Girlfriends Bowl. Found a highly variable snowpack ranging from 20cm at 1200m in the lower moraines to 140cm at 1400m where we dug. Snow has been extensively distributed by winds. Moderate results just below the Nov 23rd crust 80cm down and multiple moderate extended column test results that did not propagate ECTN in the mid and upper snowpack. Ski quality degraded as we gained elevation from loose snow to stiff windslab.

Skied Wolf den trees and low glades from 200 to 1200m on SW terrain. Temps 2 to -3. Winds mod to strong from the SW. 15cm new snow plus 5 accumulation throughout the day. Average snow depth at TL 130. Shooting cracks noted in top 20 cm in wind exposed areas. Significant wind transport from SW. Snowprofile at 930m on SW aspect in protected glades at TL. 115cm depth. Compression test easy (sudden planer) down 20 on Jan 5 surface hoar. Compression test mod (sudden planer) down 50 on Boxing day surface hoar. Extended column test 90/90 down 50 on Boxing day surface hoar. No new avalanches noted, very limited visibility. Snowpack Summary: top 25 F over jan 5 surfacehoar, then 4F down to 50 on Boxing day surface hoar. 1F to 100 then 4F facets to ground at 115.

Obs from AST 1 this past weekend (Jan 8th) at Sterling Snowmobile Area. Saw 1 size 2.5 and 1 size 1.5 from steep, convex terrain near ridge-top on Portuguese Hill. SW aspect at ~1450 m. Larger avalanche initiated in windslab and stepped down to persistent weak layer, suspect Jan 25 surface hoar. Reports from Facebook indicate avalanches were rider triggered. We primarily rode previously tracked terrain.