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Northwest Coastal

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Arctic outflows at Larsen

Published: Feb 19th, 2026
Spent Monday-Thursday at Larsen cabin. Strong arctic outflow conditions from Monday night through Wednesday night with sustained 60-80km/hr northeast winds at ridgetop the entire period and temps between -15 and -20C. We found good skiing in sheltered treed terrain, though the wind effect crept down over the week. What was holding on as soft, sheltered snow below ridgetops on west aspects had turned into styrofoamy hard slabs of varying widths by Thursday with soft snow only remaining in areas sheltered by mature trees. Wind continued ripping until sometime overnight Wednesday. It was calm and a bit warmer when we woke up Thursday although temps were inverted throughout the day with it remaining very cold in valley bottoms. High cloud came in mid-afternoon Thursday. We observed surprisingly little natural activity over the course of the week, just two size 2s in loaded features (S and SW). This morning (Thursday), we accidentally triggered a size 1.5 hard wind slab slab on a small feature while climbing Mt. Gordon. We were surprised by how far into the mellower terrain on the sides it pulled out and one person (me) was knocked over by it. The crown was roughly a meter deep and it ran on the crust layer. Overall there is widespread wind effect across most aspects, even to well below treeline, except in fairly well treed terrain or in the lee of bands of mature trees where settled powder makes for excellent skiing. We thought mellow south terrain might be more sheltered, but the burn behind the hut was variable and wind effected even as low as 770m.