Shames
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 2nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 1st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Feb 28th, 2025Good skiing, little to no evidence of instability
A busy weekend in the Shames backcountry with tracks on lots of terrain, including steeper north facing alpine lines. No evidence of recent instability whatsoever on terrain we traveled through or in the many other alpine lines we observed skiers on, including steep rolls straight off ridgetops. North aspects are skiing great with about 50cm of settled powder above a crust. Pockets of more solid wind slab persist in places but are quite stubborn at this point and the crust interface on north slopes is not producing clean shears in hand pits on north slopes.
South continues to be dust on crust.
Light wind throughout the day but little to no visible transport happening.
ngottlieb,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 5:30PM
Shames Backcountry + Sun!
Skied powder 8's and fishbowl (SW facing) and zimbuk 1 (NE facing). Based on the slopes we skied, observed wind event from a few days ago that scoured south aspects and loaded north ones. New snow is ~20 cm and not wind affected. On N facing slopes the snow is up to ~40-50 cm deep before you can feel more crusty layers. Did not observe any natural activity from the new snow, and observed some debris on north facing slopes likely from a couple of days ago.
daphnee.tuzlak,
Saturday 6th January, 2024 5:40PM
Prayer flags/third knoll area
Surprisingly good conditions around Shames. About 25-30cm of light new snow on top of 10cm rain crust at the top of prayer flags, and felt fairly consolidated under that crust, then another crusty layer 60cm-ish down. Surprisingly fun and pleasant riding on mellow open areas, but hit crust easily on the steeper bits and in the trees.
Weather felt quite calm all day, at least below ridgeline, but didn't look super windy up high either. Intermittent clouds, snow, and occassional sun.
ekennedy,
Friday 5th January, 2024 7:40PM
Spatial variability!
Spatial variability was the theme today.
We experienced extreme winds on the Dome and the Zimacord ridge today and had to change our main objective due to intense wind loading in the northern aspect we were aiming to ski. We skied North Bowl and Powder Eights to quickly retreat from the cold, extreme winds and skied cross-loaded variable snow to valley bottom. The new storm snow, with the help of the wind, quickly rose to 40cm in the sub-alpine and alpine. We had our best and safest turns in the knolls/burnt trees with an also variable upper snowpack of sometimes 5cm of new snow to about 20cm in places. The new snow has a really low density and skis go right down to the rain crust that has become the bed surface today.
yan.kaczynski,
Thursday 4th January, 2024 3:30PM
No Snow for Old Men
Went for a walk today in hopes the surface would warm and soften.... no dice.
Our trip resulted in a surface inventory of the Shames backcountry. 5-8cm thick rain crust to 1200m (top of T), wet snowball making snow below this. 1200 to 1300m south facing slopes were exciting as our pole baskets actually broke through the crust, hopes were high the dome at 1400m was skiable. 1250m saw 3ish cm rain crust over 10 cm of loose dry snow with a rain crust then a wet snowpack below it. 1340m saw a dry snowpack but 5 - 6 rain crusts in the top 50cm. loose dry snow down 17-22cm that progressively collapsed (moderate taps) under a rain crust on my attempt at a compression test. Dry snow rests between the above rain crusts (see the pic). Alpine surface mini features were filling in with the morning's snow. The best turns were from the dome down to the skin track (1400 to 1200m) on a smooth and a slightly dusted edgeable crust. Below 1200m was near survival skiing progressing to proper survival skiing until we hit the cat track back to the lodge.
Overall Impression: It will be interesting to see how the various crust sandwiches evolve/facet with the coming cooler temperatures and the moist snow below and/or any new snow above.
I hear the mountain biking is still good....
chataway.mike,
Sunday 31st December, 2023 9:30PM
Anderson
Spend the last 4 days at Anderson. Conditions changed from deep dry powder to slightly wetter powder to wet snow on the exit (today), but overall snow quality was incredible. Avy conditions also changed along with the snow density. First days were really reactive with about 40cm to 50cm of new snow breaking in hard slabs over the recent rain crust. Hard slabs were triggered easily and propagating to size 0.5, 1 and 1.5, mostly on steep rolling treeline features. Slabs were fast and ran far. Once the storm cleared out we could see naturals all over the steep alpine and sub-alpine features on The Big Top and towards Remo.
*Snowpack at the cabin is currently at 2.75m and the surrounding terrain skied really well.
yan.kaczynski,
Friday 29th December, 2023 3:00PM
Shames Backcountry
Skied Cats and No Socks finding 30-40cm dry storm snow over previous days crust. Proud features were exposed crust. Ski cut 2 small features at tree line getting Sz 1 windslabs with raincrust as bed surface. Rapid loading on one ski cut shown in picture, 30 minutes later was filled in. Iron Curtain ran less than 12 hours ago to top of runout Sz 2.5. Deposit was dry and suspect the raincrust was the bed surface. Winds were light gusting to strong from various directions with strongest gusts in the drainage bottoms. Snowing up to 2cm an hour at times with previous tracks blown in.
Avoided all alpine and large tree line features and limited our time under overhead hazards.
lucasmatt,
Wednesday 27th December, 2023 4:30PM
Annual Christmas Rain
Rain to the top of the T-bar today and likely a good bit higher.
Maybe 10cm had accumulated at the top by ~12:30pm but it was thoroughly wet and switched back and forth between rain and snow the whole time we were out. Ski conditions were terrible - traverse across the slope, turn around, traverse to the other side bad. Bottom 100m of vert was basically pond-skimming.
Heard some big sounds coming from the Valley of Doom, but didn't have enough viz to see anything other than some fresh debris below the steep stuff just up-valley from the switchback on the drive out.
ngottlieb,
Monday 25th December, 2023 5:40PM
Deep upper snowpack
Incredible, fast skiing within the 70 to 90cm low density upper snowpack. No results, reactivity in the snow, or signs of new naturals. Most of the S side of the Dome has avalanched, either yesterday or the day before, leaving lots of crown on that face. The day was generally calm, but there was some strong wind gusts up the Dome this morning.
yan.kaczynski,
Saturday 23rd December, 2023 3:50PM
Holy smokes
So, we got some snow overnight. Over 40cm in sheltered areas, and we observed 80-90cm in the open meadows below dome peak. Setting a skin track from the resort was an absolute mission, maybe shouldn’t have only brought my 95’s from the interior. Lesson learned.
A natural storm slab pulled out at sometime during the night on a NE aspect at 1250m (35* slope). It propagated ~200m across the slope and set off a few sympathetic slides on isolated features (up to 50m away). I dug a quick pit on a representative slope just to the north of the slide and found the following:
1. HS 235cm
2. {2mm} Crust (temperature / rain) down 70cm. This appeared to be what the slab pulled out on but it had reloaded significantly since the event. From what I could tell this layer represented the change in temperature as the warm front began to unload at the beginning of the storm.
3. The slab above the crust progressively consolidates (fist - 4finger) as you descend to 70cm. Below the crust density is consistently 4F. It is quite light on top but holds a lot of mass as you descend.
4. A brief compression test issued no results (CTX). In this location the crust actually appears to be bonding very well to the snow above and below. We didn’t have time to investigate further as it was approaching turn around time; however I suspect a similar crust can be found on other aspects at this elevation, and could be primed for easy triggering on steeper slopes.
We found some excellently deep skiing in the mellow trees skiers right of WIAYEJUWU. A group skied eye candy with no significant sluffing or signs of slab activity.
When we’re were leaving (@14:00) it was snowing S3 at treeline. The bottom of the resort was -1C and had received a few cm throughout the day, but nothing like the 10-20cm that we experienced at 1200m.
shadcollins5,
Friday 22nd December, 2023 5:00PM
Still chasin' waterfalls
High avalanche hazard and stormy weather kept our trip plan conservative in the Anderson area today. The best powder was above 1000m, with ski quality deteriorating rapidly below that. It was raining around 750m making the snow pretty wet below that. We dug a quick pit at 1000m and found a snowpack height of 140cm. The weak layer of surface hoar we have been tracking was buried 40cm deep.
AvCan Northwest,
Thursday 21st December, 2023 6:30PM
Third knoll
It was raining at the base of Shames for most of the day. The lower mountain received very wet snow up till ~1140m where it starts to become less dense. Above 1180m the snow becomes light fluffy hero snow. We didn’t observe much winds beyond the occasional gust (~20km/hr). Throughout the day we received 10-20cm of new low density snow up top.
We dug a full profile at the start zone above the third knoll and found the following:
1. HS 160cm @ 1220m
2. The snowpack appears to be right side up (progressively increasing density towards the base with no faceting). The base of the snowpack was moist and cohesive.
3. SH {2mm} down 15cm
4. SH {6mm} down 90cm
5. There was a very dense layer {9cm} down 110cm that I can only assume was a rain on snow event. It appears to be bonding well to the surrounding snowpack.
Visibility was limited, and we stuck close to the resort, but we did not witness any signs of recent avalanche activity. A few other groups ventured up Dome peak and skied mystic glades. It’s survival slush skiing down lower shames on the exit (Wax your skis!!)
shadcollins5,
Thursday 21st December, 2023 4:40PM
Rolling Visibility
Started our hike over to the ridge around 10:00, visibility was okay, but by the time we hit the saddle, we had lost all vis. Made the decision to just ride powder 8's into the valley. Snow was a little wind affected at the top, but the quality increased as we descended. Stuck to some more sheltered riding around mary's run and prayer flags afterwards and the snow was amazing. A bit heavier down lower towards the valley.
The wind was blowing out of the north, moving around a lot of snow today.
Noticed a couple of 'slabby feeling' sections as we traversed north bowl but no major signs of instability.
CFossl,
Monday 18th December, 2023 8:20AM
Prayer flags and Deliverence meadows
30 to 40 of fresh snow in t bar land with 20 cm's in p lot of lodge. Gusty winds from the southish at Prayer flags ridge. Intermittently snowing. Cracks around skin tips at times and small soft slab chunks falling in kick turns in deliverence tree area. Long crown lines visable in Intencity area (between Geronimo and cold sweat) alpine bowl south facing slope. Small crown in iron curtain cliff areas making visible deposit on curtain run out lid slope. Also small (3m wide) skier triggered soft slab, new and old snow interface, in deliverence trees area skiers rt of eye candy. Pic provided. Creeks and features filling in but still an issue. Super fluff fun turns once ya got up and running.
travisluvsbikes,
Wednesday 13th December, 2023 8:10PM
Prayer flags and Deliverence meadow.
30 to 40 of fresh snow made for deep skinning but great turns once up and running on the board. Gusty southish wind at Prayer flags ridge. Some cracking around skin tips with small slab chunks on kick turns released at times. No whumpfs felt. Could see crown lines in open bowls of Intensity area (between Geronimo and cold sweat) that had length to them and small slab lines in iron curtain cliff areas that made for a visable deposit in the curtain run out. As well one small (3 m wide) skier triggered soft slab in storm snow old snow interface in deliverance tree runs skiers rt of eye candy. Otherwise super nice fluff turns. Creeks and features still not completely filled in yet but getting much better. And 20 cms of fluff on lodge p lot.
travisluvsbikes,
Wednesday 13th December, 2023 8:00PM
No Dogs
35cm of new snow overnight at the top of the Tbar (1200m) and ongoing snowfall throughout the day, temperatures just below zero. Stayed Below treeline all day but could feel a light SW wind in exposed areas near ridgetop. New snow settling into a soft storm slab throughout the day. Some cracking around the skis and a few small whumps on steeper convex micro features near the top of the ridge on no dogs. 2 small Naturals (sz 1) spotted on steep convex rolls in No dogs and No socks
No digging today, but could feel a thin crust on solar aspects below the new snow, and heard several reports of surface hoar on top of that crust earlier in the week. Treading lightly and avoiding overhead hazard today, expecting more avalanche activity as slab properties develop in new snow.
msuliak,
Wednesday 13th December, 2023 5:20PM
Shames backcountry
About 30cm of new dry snow above TL reducing to 20cm below TL. Great riding throughout the elevation range.
yan.kaczynski,
Saturday 9th December, 2023 4:20PM
Zimbuk 1
Beautiful day out in Shames backcountry. We skinned across the Knolls to Northbowl and Zimbuk 1. It was our first day out poking around in the backcountry so we avoided steep convexities.
We observed surface hoar 3-5mm on all aspects at treeline and above, the top 10cm of snowpack beginning to facet. Below this, snow increasing in hardness (4F-1F) above the november crust down 60-80cm at treeline elevation.
Saw older debris from a size 2.5 out of the rocky area between Zimbuk 1 and 2, likely occured during last storm.
kerry.gibson.gail,
Friday 8th December, 2023 8:50AM
Cats, no socks
Good day out there, superb snow quality above 1000m with 10+cm of cold, dry snow overlaying the previous days storm snow.
Below 1000m varying surfaces of melt freeze crusts and unconsolidated snow on top of wet, heavy and grabby snow.
sebycharest,
Thursday 7th December, 2023 6:50PM
Fish bowl
Right-side up snowpack after this last cycle. Colder Temps and some visibility made for a nice day out. Stomped around the Dome looking for windslabs and found nothing reactive.
Jr. Snow Ranger,
Wednesday 6th December, 2023 4:50PM
No socks, no bottom
Rode “No Socks” today, very deep.
130cm of storm snow at ridgetop sits on melt forms from last rain event.
Temp at valley bottom hovering around 0 degrees and temps at 1300m were around -2.
Heavy snow, at times S4 with light ridge top E winds.
Snowed to parking lot in the afternoon.
Performed several hand shear tests with easy to moderate results, fracturing on density changes down 20 and 40 cm within the storm snow.
Density goes from 4F to 1F, on preserved stellars.
Ski cuts did not provide any results, no whumfing heard.
One audible out of valley of certain doom.
Few alpine obs due to limited vis.
sebycharest,
Tuesday 5th December, 2023 8:50PM
Shames heavy snow
Deep conditions above 1000m. The dome had plenty of wind affect, punchy snow and poor vis. Fayzurs skied well early in the day but warmed up after 1300 and got heavy. The only signs of instabilities we encountered was some storm snow shedding on very steep terrain probably this morning.
Jr. Snow Ranger,
Monday 4th December, 2023 3:10PM
Shames backcountry—Zymacord ridge
Lots of new snow, my tracks from yesterday afternoon were fully buried around the Dome and on Zymacord ridge.
Conditions improved drastically from yesterday and the previous days, notably below 950m where it was difficult to find any good turns. Today the snow quality was there, from alpine to the base of Shames. Keep it mind the overall snowpack is still marginal despite the improving ski quality, especially below that 950m mark.
yan.kaczynski,
Saturday 2nd December, 2023 4:00PM
Shames - Windslabs
Skied south and north west aspects (Old Faithfull and Northbowl) in the alpine and tree line elevation bands finding many small soft windslabs sitting over a faceted crust. Skin track from previous day was blown in with soft drifts. Outflow like conditions with light northerly winds and periodic flurries. Many small pockets of cross loaded slabs on multiple aspects with one Sz 1 skier accidental windslab at 1400m on a northwest aspect. Few skiers entered bowl on small unconnected features with 4th skier entering into more connected terrain triggering 3m long crown up to 30cm deep running 10 meters. Skier easily skied out of it.
lucasmatt,
Friday 1st December, 2023 8:00PM
Shames backcountry—alpine
Amazing riding but lots of early season hazards. The snowpack is thin if we compare to the same date last year, but it seems to be the right side up this time. Still lots of uncertainties out there.
Snow was increasingly affected by wind going towards the top of the Dome.
yan.kaczynski,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:38PM
Shames backcountry
Good snow accumulation in the past few days, and cooler temperatures seem to have kept it light and powdery. Didn't measure, but guessing 80-100cm deep near the top of the ridge, and did feel firmer underneath (maybe 60cm or so down). Definitely lots of early season hazards out there (rocks, stumps, creeks); we avoided dropping too low in valley bottom to avoid some.
ekennedy,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:38PM
Nuking at Shames
Up to 30 + new cm's of recent storm snow down low. Easy riding back to p lot on fluffy snow. Light winds from S ish. Dumping 3-5 cm's an hour while there. No whumpfs or slabs noticed but small cracks around feet at times while putting in effort full skin track. Up to thigh deep on sidehills. 1m + top of tee tot snow. Probably 50 ish recent since Mon. Enter the white room on heel side turns 👍
travisluvsbikes,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:38PM
North Bowl Snow Profile
angusmusgrave,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:37PM
Shames backcountry—alpine and sub-alpine runs
We did a Rutschblock test in the sub-alpine on the Dome shoulder with good results—meaning that the overall snowpack was really well bonding, (it’s of course only a result on an easterly aspect, but it did confirm a general sense we had of the current snowpack) and no significant weak layers.
The alpine and sub-alpine skied really well, especially towards the end of the day with the upper snowpack losing rapidly its moisture with colder temperatures/clear skies.
We did experience everything from wet to dry powder today, with up to 45cm of new snow in sheltered areas.
We skied quite far on the Zymacord Ridge, expect traveling to be a bit longer than expected and usual as the ridge is quite convoluted with small rock bands and snow trenches.
Overall it was a day with lots of diversity from nice clearings to snowstorm, deep dry powder and wet isothermal snow (in the beginning of the day at low elevations).
yan.kaczynski,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:37PM
Shames
Snowpack above 1000m is 10-15cm dry powder overtop moist snow from the rain and wind events. Ski quality was much better than expected as the old tracks were moist and could easily be skied through. Below 800m snow is sadly disappearing and isothermal. One Size 2 natural, last 12 hours out of steep south facing alpine terrain running to mid runout and through small trees (Cold Sweat). Could not see start zone.
lucasmatt,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:37PM
Sloughs at Shames
Super nice conditions in North Bowl today. Intermittent sun below freeze Temps, Low winds and fresh snow above 1000 m's. Wind from day before caused transported snow to be moved off the dome into bowl upper edge. (S ish to N ish) Looked like ? Small soft snow cornice breaks started slough runs that traveled >= 100 m's down slope. Couldnt see slab crowns though. Several sloughs in N bowl. Stayed skiers rt of these for very nice turns and over the shoulder fluff on heal side turns. Older snow below fresh, turned crusty towards bottom of merge with powder 8's trench but remained supportive all the way to flats. Creek crossing needs thinking still as snow depth is about 120 cms give or take down there.
travisluvsbikes,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:37PM
North Bowl
Warming quite a bit at Shames today. Still some cold snow on northern slopes above 1000 m. About 10 cm of cold powder on top of consolidated snow. Some hazy clouds around 1000 m were creating greenhouse effect under that elevation, but clear skies above 1000 m in places and still some good turns to be had in shaded areas. Lots of sun effect and pinwheels seen on south facing slopes.
daphnee.tuzlak,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:37PM
New Snow at Shames 👍
Headed up to see what was shaking at Shames. Above 0 in p lot, light to no wind. Moist snow still remains to lodge. Some water bars showing through up to tower 8. Snow falling above 850 ish m's (tower 9 ish). 20ish fresh packable snow top tee with about 25 + ish recent storm snow at 1100 m's (Prayer Flags) over a heavy crusty wet supportive layer. About 100 to 110 cm's tot snow with a few probes there. Very foggy all day. Light snow at times. No whumfs or cracks. Seems to be bonding well to old surface. No slabs seen. Short light rumbles from cliffs of Valley of Doom heard mid day. Able to make smooey nice turns to valley bottom. Only 50 to 75cm's of snow down there (90m's). Much less under dense trees. Route finding up and down is interesting with deep creek side walls and logs. Almost got to use the force with that stuff.
travisluvsbikes,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:36PM
3rd knoll Shames backcountry
angusmusgrave,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:36PM
Shames...again. crust and fluff.
Returned to see the changes and get partner out for 1st runs of the season. Below 0 temps at p lot made for crusty skin up on previous days moist snow. Cloudy with light winds. Crusty surface to 1000 m's then soft top improved with elevation. Knolls runs to meadow all fluff (see pic 1)...dried out nicely over night. No slabs seen or triggered. Point release slides seen in steep North Bowl tree shoots. As well a wet looking slide ran in creek runout of Cold Sweat that almost made valley bottom. (See pic 2) as we approached valley bottom below 1000 m's surface crust gets thick and very hard to ride. Survival skiing at best down there. Run back to lodge not so good below top chair. Above zero and a bit corny last 5 chairs. Mud and dirt starting to show through 😕
travisluvsbikes,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:36PM
Shames Valley Came Unglued
<p>Viz wasn't great, but we heard numerous very large sounding avalanches and observed some rock and ice falls in the Monkey Bowl vicinity and up the Valley of Certain Doom over the course of 4 hours at the hill today. Would not have wanted to be out under any significant slopes in the 1200-2000m elevation band today.</p>
ngottlieb,
Sunday 23rd April, 2023 7:20PM
Cornice Ridge
<p>Walked up Cornice Ridge hoping to ski back down, but encountered sliding of small slab plates on steep features, and small shooting cracks. That and low viz let us turn around. Dug a quick pit and found two reactive layer 5 and 10 cm down.
Skiing of tree line in ridge was fun with dust on edgeable crust. Nothing moved on us. Then dipped onto north-facing steep tree run near project pillow. Snow was surprisingly soft. Heavy but still fun to ski.
Ski out along creek was decent.
Overall skiing was better than expected. </p>
julian.krick,
Sunday 16th April, 2023 1:50PM
Another Big Natural Near Shames
<p>Skied a quick lap in the Shames backcountry today. At 1200m, there is a 3cm thick somewhat breakable melt freeze crust under about 10cms of new low density snow on all aspects. The crust becomes firmer the lower you go; skiing above 1400m or so is probably pretty good -- but good luck getting a viz window with this unsettled weather</p>
ngottlieb,
Thursday 13th April, 2023 1:40PM
Heavy Greenhousing Today
<p>Heavy greenhousing in the Shames area today due to in and out low cloud with temps rising well above 0 at times even on top of the Dome. Not sure polar aspects below 1400m will survive this, though a clear night might dry it out enough. There's a lot of new snow in the Shames backcountry from the last three days with a number of warming/cooling related interfaces within. Loaded higher terrain had 50-60cms of soft cold powder at least as of this morning. Below about 1250m, there was a thin zipper crust within the new snow (maybe 8cm down), noticeable but not particularly unpleasant. At 1100m NW aspect, ski pen 5cm, boot pen 25cm. By the time we skied out, everything below about 1000m skied like soup.</p>
ngottlieb,
Monday 10th April, 2023 3:50PM
Cats
<p>Two good laps of Cats today. Snow was heavy but lots of fun! Storm sluff ran easily on crust. Heard lots of avis from The Valley of Certain Doom. Snowed all day at temps just slightly below freezing. </p>
julian.krick,
Saturday 8th April, 2023 9:20PM
High alpine
<p>Skied several high alpine lines in the last few days, more notably N Face and SE Face of Superbowl on the 2nd and N Face of South Morris and E Face of Morris yesterday (the 4th).
All the runs mentioned above skied really well with up to 40cm of dry snow on the N Face of Superbowl and South Morris.
There was surface hoar (up to 2cm) on several sheltered slopes, so we hope the new load of snow will be warm and crush it.
On the 2nd we witnessed a lot of natural hard slab from steep convex rolls on N faces. By the 4th we had already a lot more confidence in the snowpack.
*Bears are out in the Valley of Certain Doom, we saw fresh tracks following a skintrack when we skied Superbowl to Shames River on the 2nd. Be aware of them!</p>
yan.kaczynski,
Wednesday 5th April, 2023 12:10PM
Cornice Ridge
<p>We skied off the top of Cornice Ridge into Ptarmigan Couloir. 10-15cms of new snow mostly well bonded to the underlying surface on north and northwest terrain in the alpine. Deeper drifts existed on the lee side of subfeatures on the ridge but were stubborn when we tested them. Sluffing in the couloir but no instability. Cornice Ridge itself was more like 8 unconsolidated cms on a hard crust and down towards the Shames base area it was full dust on crust. Evidence of a mid-storm sluff cycle on Mt. Remo's west face but the only avalanche observed was a size 1 cornice failure down low in the basin. BIG surface hoar growing on the ridge all the way to the summit -- up to 2cms already!</p>
ngottlieb,
Sunday 2nd April, 2023 6:00PM
Hard slab avalanche
<p>We skied the Dome Couloir today, which seemed a good idea at first, but wasn’t.
The recent and ongoing wind-loading brought more snow than expected (anywhere between 15cm, to 90cm (close to the Darkside) in places). I triggered a 62cm deep, 14m wide (start zone then spread out further) and 220m long hard slab avalanche. The slab broke above me, but luckily I was anchored just enough by my skis and up-slope pole. In did take away most of the hang fire in the couloir, and obviously down the fan, and wrapped around the Dome.
The wind-loading carried on, on most of the way up, and the wind died down once back on Shames' side.
Lots of wind on the Dome and its north side, many more evidence of fragility in the new storm snow, some more snow throughout the AM and a lot of sun.</p>
yan.kaczynski,
Saturday 1st April, 2023 5:50PM
Dark side and couloirs
<p>Mix of sun and clouds throughout the day, fairly chilly. Some nice skiing on north/northeast aspects with a bit of powder, especially in protected areas, but everything else was mostly wind and sun affected/crusty. No signs of instability besides older pinwheels and thin, isolated wind slab (small and no propagation). Surface hoar growing on the upper slopes (north side) of dome ridge.</p>
ekennedy,
Sunday 26th March, 2023 11:00PM
Hidden lake
<p>Wind crust on top of the ridge and uppermost roll, but nice powder just below ridgeline and all the way down to the lake. Some shallow sluffing, but no other reactivity on the north aspect.
Came back via tree triangle, which was much crustier (both wind and sun crust) up top and quite heavy and wet towards valley bottom. Lots of pinwheels. </p>
ekennedy,
Sunday 19th March, 2023 12:40AM
dome couloir/zymacord
<p>Good snow in sheltered polar aspects. No observations of march 12th SH instabilities.</p>
sebycharest,
Saturday 18th March, 2023 8:20PM
Loading and reactive hard storm slabs
<p>Again today, more wind loading on north faces. Slabs are reactive and varied in tickness. We came across recent hard slabs of 40cm deep in alpine terrain with long run outs and got a skier-triggered hard slab avalanche on us (size 1.5), but moved away from it and made it out safely.
We moved to south facing runs instead where we found good snow and safer ground.
Play safe.</p>
yan.kaczynski,
Saturday 18th March, 2023 6:00PM
Loading and reactive hard storm slabs
<p>Again today, more wind loading on north faces. Slabs are reactive and varied in tickness. We came across recent hard slabs of 40cm deep in alpine terrain with long run outs and got a skier-triggered hard slab avalanche on us (size 1.5), but moved away from it and made it out safely.
We moved to south facing runs instead where we found good snow and safer ground.
Play safe.</p>
yan.kaczynski,
Saturday 18th March, 2023 6:00PM
Alpine wind effect
<p>Nice powder skiing below about 1200m with preserved soft snow down to 700m in well-shaded areas (though that latter number may be rising after today's warmth). Mix of hard and soft wind-affected surfaces above there. The softer deposits (on the lee side of subfeatures) were unreactive and seemed to be faceting to some degree with a couple of clear nights in the last few days. The hard wind slabs varied in firmness and thickness but sit on unconsolidated snow that felt like facets (though we did not do a close inspection). One member of our group triggered a size 1.5 (pictured) hard slab while skinning across a convexity that broke just below the skin track about 4" deep.</p>
ngottlieb,
Saturday 18th March, 2023 5:10PM
Remo
<p>Headed out around Remo today, recent and active loading on north faces hold us back from our main objectives, it just felt really spooky in many places.
We’ve witnessed many fractures and debris, mostly from cornices.
No wind until up high in the alpine, and overall excellent preserved powder on north, northwest, and east/southeast aspects!</p>
yan.kaczynski,
Friday 17th March, 2023 5:00PM