Rossland
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 2nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 1st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Feb 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Feb 27th, 2025Whumphing
Set our own track wandering around near the summer road and felt numerous settlements.
No new avalanches observed today.
timandrews111,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 4:20PM
Plewman windslab
goinupthegranby,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 1:00PM
Birthday Chutes
In addition to the other MIN, here’s a photo of birthday chute we triggered while standing on top of it. The first chute on the way up cutblock was also triggered as we skinned by. Conditions were touchy with lots of whumpfs and signs of instability.
eva.gifford,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 9:10AM
Birthday chutes was spicy
We went up to ski birthday chutes on the north aspect saddle between Cutblock and Plewman. We climbed Cutblock from the highway up the glades. We remote triggered a crown consisting of the new ~30cm storm snow in birthday chutes. We decided to ski south Cutblock and stick to mellow terrain. No crust could be felt on the south aspect. In general, new snow was wet and starting to slab up on all aspects but still provided great skiing. We heard lots of settling throughout the day and possible slides happening in the Plewman north/south basins. Conditions were very touchy.
k.allan,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 8:00AM
Record mountain
greg.j.matthews,
Saturday 6th January, 2024 9:20PM
Mt Neptune
Video made for State of the Snowpack and Kootenay Avalanche Courses. Link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTMfxxWAPxAO0YNzwmS1SmA
keith,
Thursday 4th January, 2024 12:40PM
West face mount plewma
Really good skiing off the top of Mount Plewman
No signs of instability’s in the snowpack (did not dig a pit)
HS ranged from 100cm-130cm
Still early season conditions with rock exposure near ridge tops
jaredbreitkreuz,
Friday 29th December, 2023 7:30AM
What to do when the resort is closed
We came to Rossland as part of a long-planned Kootenay ski trip. But sadly, Red Resort doesn't even have an opening day announced. Good thing we brought the touring setup.
We went up to the Plewman trail to Saddleback, a 2,150m bump just south of Mt Plewman. We didn't continue to the peak because everything beyond our point looked very wind affected, including the SE bowl of Plewman. Coverage in the bowl was also thin, with rocks sticking out in many places (ideal start zones).
Earlier, we had dug a pit to ground, roughly 120cm deep. There is a thick, supportive crust 70-85 cm down. Underneath, loose and weak snow.
At the ridge top, snow was wind affected but our run back down to the trail was superb powder. The return to the car was classic survival skiing on a steep, narrow, and crusty trail.
LuJo,
Sunday 24th December, 2023 5:40PM
Soft snow on bomber raincrust
We managed to find good skiing above 2000m in the Rossland Range today!
20cm of 4F snow is on the raincrust which was 10cm thick where we dug at 1900m. HS was 80cm. The Dec 1 SH was not observed below the raincrust appearing to have been washed out by the rain. There is new SH up to 20mm on the surface, although 5mm was much more prevalent. The snow below the raincrust is faceted to the ground.
We did not do any stability tests nor did we observe any signs of instability after four laps of 35ish degree skiing in reasonably open terrain. The raincrust is not breakable under regular riding and forms a durable cap over many, but not all, early season hazards.
Above 200m was better than expected, but still sharky. Terrible at lower elevation.
goinupthegranby,
Tuesday 12th December, 2023 5:50PM
Surface hoar on facets
goinupthegranby,
Sunday 3rd December, 2023 4:50PM
Ski cutting size 1.5's in the Rossland Range
<p>Ski cut several size 1.0 to 1.5 storm slab avalanches, down 20cm, in 35-40 degree terrain. Posted a video on the conditions and how we were choosing terrain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cAJxwsO-4s</p>
keith,
Wednesday 12th April, 2023 9:40PM
Seven Summits
<p>Traversed from Grey Mt to the Strawberry pass. Was warm and sunny with light breeze. Moist surface snow (with lots of fun with glopping on the skins) but supportive underneath. Some wind slabs on the ridgeline. We stayed to the ridge and avoided any large slopes or overhead hazard. Size 2 avalanche on the S face of Plewman that ran to valley bottom looked natural and a couple days old.
Still some good ski quality on northern aspects!</p>
mfmaster,
Wednesday 29th March, 2023 7:00PM
Old Glory
<p>Test pit 50m below ridge. SE aspect 2350m.
HS 120cm, foot pen 50cm. Several melt-freeze crusts with facets between. CTM12 SP down 15cm on FC. CTM19 RP down 45cm in 10cm layer of F hardness FC. Thick crust down 80cm. ECTN results. Surface snow becoming moist. Decided not to ski the slope.</p>
arloomes,
Saturday 18th March, 2023 3:40PM
Plewman South
<p>Size 2 natural on the south side of Mount Plewman. Approximately 250m wide and ran approximately 200m to treeline.</p>
jwelbourne,
Saturday 18th March, 2023 1:00PM
Record Mountain
<p>Widespread wind affected snow present on Record on the E face at 2000m</p>
mitch.hewson,
Wednesday 15th March, 2023 9:20PM
Wet slab on Southeast slope, Mt Lepsoe
Arvid Sigstam,
Sunday 12th March, 2023 5:00PM
Kirkup wind affect
r.be,
Saturday 4th March, 2023 2:10PM
Around WW Ridge
<p>We stayed away from a couple steep, convex wind loaded slopes near treeline. We also avoided areas that had potential to be thin HS.</p>
r.be,
Wednesday 1st March, 2023 11:50PM
Plewman avalanche
<p>Looking for a future line off the ridge of Plewman, we accidentally triggered a cornice. The Cornice then triggered a size 2 avalanche running all the way down. Crown was probably 1m+ Deep by ~50m. No one went for a ride. Wind picked up in the afternoon and we could definitely see the snow being transported. We had no sign of instability during the day… Just deep pow. </p>
bernard_crepeau,
Wednesday 1st March, 2023 6:50PM
Fluffy wonderland!
mustang_lizzy,
Sunday 26th February, 2023 6:00PM
Roberts
bigshimbo,
Sunday 26th February, 2023 6:00PM
Rossland Range
<p>This is a few days old, but I made a video while teaching an AST Refresher Course in the Rossland Range. The title is about managing deep persistent avalanche problems by choosing Simple Terrain. Here's the link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnXG_4wQ4q0
</p>
keith,
Sunday 26th February, 2023 5:10PM
Kirkup
r.be,
Thursday 9th February, 2023 5:50PM
Cutblock Peak
<p>We took an afternoon lap on the south side of Cutblock and experienced a slight sun crust at lower elevations (~ 1800m) and considerable wind affected snow in exposed areas near tree line (cross-loading with both dense wind slabs and firm wind-scoured sections). There was ~15cm of new snow in the higher elevations, and we found softer, more enjoyable snow in the trees.
We dug one pit and completed tilt test, CT, and ECT (see snowpack summary).</p>
josepher,
Wednesday 8th February, 2023 10:40PM
Kirkup
<p>Very wind hardened snow at the top, wind will keep building cornices. A variety of dusty crusts down through the trees</p>
alistairwjones,
Thursday 2nd February, 2023 8:50AM
Plewman South
<p>Mt Plewman
S aspect
2150m
Very very warm day yielded bad mush skiing on south aspects.
Multiple tests yielded similar results. Failures ~50cm deep with 25 taps. Evidence of strong SW wind effect on the ridge.
CT25 ~50cm
ECTN ~50cm
ECTP7 ~10cm (wind scoured and sun crust)
</p>
danielradosevich90,
Thursday 26th January, 2023 6:40PM
Old Size 2 in Pleuman Basin
<p>AST 2 group went to check out the crown of the old avalanche in Pleuman Basin. We suspect it went naturally around January 14 (9 days ago). The crown is mostly filled in, but we estimated that the depth of the slab was 55 cm, likely a PWL layer from early January. The width of the crown was about 80m and it ran roughly 150m. The debris is still visible and was a healthy size 2.0 avalanche. The slope was 34 degrees at its steepest and 31 degrees near its right flank. NNE aspect, 2040m. Large opening halfway down a mostly treed slope.</p>
keith,
Monday 23rd January, 2023 6:00PM
Mt Kirkup
<p>AST2 course. Conducted multiple ECT and CTs. See snowpack tab for details</p>
JessR,
Saturday 21st January, 2023 6:50PM
Mt Plewman
<p>Skiing up to Mt. Plewman the south aspects were significantly wind affected. The wind slab was patchy, varying in thickness from a couple centimeters to >20cm. There were spin drifts occurring along the ridge. There was evidence of critical warming throughout the day with tree bombs, pinwheeling, and an increasingly wet/heavy surface layer on south aspects. We skied mellow slopes on the south aspect <30 degrees. </p>
JessR,
Thursday 19th January, 2023 8:20PM
Plewman
<p>Stayed on low angle slopes, which skied great above 1800 m. Below that was a crust under 5 cm of fresh snow.</p>
kendrick.a.cross,
Tuesday 17th January, 2023 5:50PM
Crowe’s nest
<p>Skiing conditions were awesome in the trees!</p>
isaacisoutside,
Monday 16th January, 2023 5:20PM
Mid Rossland Range
<p>No signs of instability from the last storm cycle. 12/26 IFrc down ~20 - 30 cm and unreactive. </p>
TayC,
Saturday 7th January, 2023 4:30PM
Plewman north side
<p>CTH 23 SH layer, No response from the christmas rain although the crust was very present. Basal facets gave out after CT with some extra force.</p>
mattiasrh2,
Monday 2nd January, 2023 6:00PM
Lower plewman
<p>Great day skiing mellow pitches off the plewman ridge. Day started getting warm so we kept it simple and had great skiing in open trees.
Dug a pit and found a snow depth of 145cms, our ECT test produced no results </p>
jaredbreitkreuz,
Saturday 31st December, 2022 2:00PM
Plewman pow pow
<p>Rode North side of plewman and cutblock peak on the 20th-22.
Storm snow on the 20th fell with little to no wind. Skiing was phenomenal.
Wind on the 21st made some small slabs on east facing slopes that are likely quite large higher up.
Heard heavy whumpfing on south facing slopes. </p>
patrickjackmcilroy,
Friday 23rd December, 2022 8:10AM
Elgood AST 1
<p>Easily triggered entire snowpack to ground with large propagations on test features while travelling through below treeline terrain. Large whumpfing occurring whenever we entered open or sparsely treed areas </p>
cadamson,
Saturday 17th December, 2022 6:10PM
7 summits trail
chris-davidson,
Wednesday 14th December, 2022 5:30PM
Rossland Range Update
<p>Out with an AST 1 group. We experienced a few loud whumpf's. Upon inspection, our test pit showed propagation of the persistent weak layer down 56cm on surface hoar from mid-November, size 10-15mm sitting on a crust (2cm thick).
Test Pit: 1910m, S aspect, 10 degree slope, HS 105cm
CTM(RP)17,14 down 34 on SH size 3-5 (Dec 7?)
CTH(SC)24,23 down 56 on SH size 10-15 (Nov 22)
ECTP14(SC) down 56</p>
keith,
Tuesday 13th December, 2022 12:00PM
East Plewman ridge
laurence.munger,
Sunday 4th December, 2022 2:30PM
Elgood cut blocks
<p>Lots of fresh snow from the last storm, making riding anything too flat impossible.
Ski penetration varied from 50cm to 80cm.</p>
BCWoodworks,
Thursday 1st December, 2022 10:15PM
Elgood cut blocks
<p>Lots of fresh snow from the last storm, making riding anything too flat impossible.
Ski penetration varied from 50cm to 80cm.</p>
BCWoodworks,
Thursday 1st December, 2022 10:15PM
Strawberry pass, Crowe mtn
<p>Pit dug at 2129m on West aspect. 75 cm deep, 15 cm down was a 2-3 cm facet. Very light result at 7th medium tap of novice compression test. There was a little sun, mostly cloudy with a light wind. -8 felt colder with wind chill. Got colder as the day went on. Trees covered in rime I'm guessing from mist I experienced a few days ago. Overall nice early season hero snow.</p>
Tennille,
Monday 28th November, 2022 9:30AM