South Columbia
McCrae
A nice skiff of powder well bonded to a smooth surface made for good skiing on the McCrae glacier. Below the glacier and on solar aspects the new snow was saturated, sticky, and pinwheeling. Conditions improved slightly in the trees where the new snow tapered off and shade protected the crust.
The road is driveable until blocked by avalanche debris at 30.5 km (1600 m). From there it is a short dirt walk to continuous snow on the shoulder, and a longer dirt walk to efficient skinning. The dirt walk will get a lot longer before the avalanche debris melt out, so go get it!
abarth,
Tuesday 13th May, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Published: Apr 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wet Slabs, Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Cornices.
Published: Apr 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Cornices.
Published: Apr 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Cornices.
Published: Apr 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 15th, 2025One slab down, one or two more to go?
Rode alpine ENE face after careful evaluation. Although overnight recovery was poor (freezing lvl 2500m), shaded slopes above 1800m were firm.
Hand shear at 2400m+ showed few cm wet loose, and persistent slab down ~30cm, resistant, on a thick crust.
Slope had sufficient sun to be receptive to a wet loose ski cut. We then skied the slope without issue.
Considering the 3 layers in the forecast snowpack assessment (Mar, Feb, and Jan) earlier this spring, I think the size 3 slid on the March or Feb layer. The 30cm persistent slab we found in the hand shear may be the Jan or Feb layer. Regardless, another big one is waiting for warming or loading.
tahcameron,
Tuesday 15th April, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 13th, 2025Wind slab Tilley
accounts,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 11th, 2025Two birds one stone.
Observed from distance, natural avalanches happened after the wind event last night. The upper size 2 wind slab released, triggered the second avalanche below. The second avalanche was a size 3 persistant slab that propagated pretty wide (crown over a meter, see photo).
Itsas,
Friday 11th April, 2025 12:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 3rd, 2025Burnt Knob
Rugged skiing with 5cm of dry snow over a supportive crust above 1600m in shaded areas. Below 1600m was a supportive crust and frozen avalanche debris. Crust unsupportive in sun exposed areas and in a closed canopy below 1400m.
ds.healey,
Thursday 3rd April, 2025 4:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 2nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Apr 1st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 31st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 30th, 2025Slides below the Knob
ds.healey,
Sunday 30th March, 2025 3:00PM
State of the Snowpack - Dynamic March
Lots of evidence of previous natural avalanche cycle from 3-6 days ago. State of the Snowpack Video at:
https://youtu.be/LdXE8Y-Ypm4
keith,
Sunday 30th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 29th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025The Womb
gromansk,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Afternoon lap
No signs of instability. Trees were shedding some decent size snow bombs.
Top 3rd - Amazing skiing - Sluffing fast in steeper areas
Middle part - Creamy pow
Bottom/exit - Industrious
ICbM,
Thursday 20th March, 2025 1:00PM
Kyawats Creek
Hollow sounding wind drifts on exposed ridges at 2400 meters. I jumped on several east, west, and north facing test slopes and couldn't get anything moving. There wasn't enough sun for any wet activity. No naturals seen today.
Ed M,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 8:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Womb Pow
Fun tour up the Womb. Snow was dry in the shade all the way down to the ski out out. No wind affect at the top and great skiing. Some wind effect mid run due to down flow. Otherwise great day out.
Gave the peak a pass, snow was moist and we started to late to bag the summit.
March madness is real!
vincentjauvin,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Montana
Dug a pit and found the persistant slab at 80 cm deep. CTE 4 so we stayed safe terrain most of the day.
gablainart,
Monday 17th March, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Touchy graupels on MacPherson
Lower angle / elevation skied well and without signs of instability, but that immediately changed as we got up to higher and steeper slopes. Lots of sluffing in steeper terrain 35 degrees or more around 1400m - 1500m
Many Natural and skier triggered size 1
Mostly running on a touchy layer of graupel under the storm snow. This was present through all the runs we crossed.
Evidence of size 2 from yesterday.
Demonic Pancake,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Kokanee backcountry ish
Storm skiing, deep powder. Rising hazard with wind and 3+cm/hour snowfall. Expected storm slab and found some on isolated N Facing convex rolls. Avoided rollovers and skied one at a time on E and W facing terrain.
connachermi,
Thursday 13th March, 2025 1:00PM
State of the Snowpack March 13 - TOUCHY
Easy to ski cut and ski-remote size 1-1.5 storm slabs (down 20cm) in small/medium features over 35 degrees. See State of the Snowpack Video at:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3HBEUGbZ-hI
keith,
Thursday 13th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Deep
Great riding at fuzzy knob today. ~75 cm pole penetration in open areas. Snow seemed well bonded, and we observed no avalanche activity other than sluffing of the top 5-10 cm, which was lower density than the snow from Sat-Mon. Of course, it was possible that the storm snow was simply too deep for us to affect the interface below. Snow became noticeably wet and depth dropped off at ~1100 m.
abarth,
Tuesday 11th March, 2025 2:00PM
Size 1 Skier accidental Montana bowl
samuel.j.m.bentley,
Tuesday 11th March, 2025 1:15PM
Avalanche goat peak colour
matti.benden,
Tuesday 11th March, 2025 10:30AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Retallack Skier Accidental Near Miss
guides,
Monday 10th March, 2025 1:00PM
Mt Macpherson the Fingers
The up track had some tree debris at the lower end someone had a saw and made some cuts. The area has had a recent avalanche, the runs are covered in avalanche debris with a couple of cm of new wet snow. At the top end there are significant fractures in the snow pack horizontal and vertical fractures about the width of a ski. No sounds no movements. The base is supportive., no breaking through.
smsettler,
Friday 7th March, 2025 2:00PM
Beaton Pow Surf
witttrips,
Thursday 27th February, 2025 3:00PM
Field day
Toured up Kokanee ridge from the resort. Warm and sunny and the surface snow felt moist down 15 cm up to 2300 m but was less moist on shadier slopes. We didn't see any signs of instability as we were travelling but the ski pen was only 15cm or so. Dug a pit with some minor failures at 20 and 25 cm but no propagation. The pit was southwest aspect and we were on mostly south to west aspects throughout the day.
cdunning8,
Wednesday 26th February, 2025 12:00PM
Cranberry road slides
tyspooner.visuals,
Wednesday 26th February, 2025 7:00AM
Blue lake
Found some soft snow around blue lake, warm and a bit wet. Snowing hard throughout the day with 5cm falling while we were out
BryceSc,
Tuesday 25th February, 2025 12:00AM
Selkrik Northerly Aspects
Toured into the selkrik to asses the area. Dug a pit for educational purposes and found buried depth hoar creating non-propagating failures in our pit.
remococco,
Sunday 23rd February, 2025 12:15PM
Fingers sz1
chewynnride,
Sunday 23rd February, 2025 10:46AM
Found the weak layer
Due to poor visibility and deep snow, we were quite limited in terrain we could ride. While this was a small bit of terrain beside the road, it is indicative of the current snowpack in the area. We failed to take photos, but we saw a crown line of a recent avalanche in terrain near us. Long of the short, it's snowing heavily and the snowpack is reactive.
wonderfuljofoz,
Saturday 22nd February, 2025 4:00PM
Montana bowl glades
Triggered a small storm slab on a test slope on a road cut. No observed whumpfing/cracking but heavy wind effect at treeline so we stayed in the trees. Snow was deep and skied very well.
camderwin,
Saturday 22nd February, 2025 3:00PM
Retallack sled ski
We dug pits before skiing near Retallack lodge.
Snow pack was about 170 cm deep.
We did 2 ECT (extended column tests) with the same results:
- RP (resistant planar) on 1 tap at 10 cm down no propagation
Warmer storm snow appears to be slabbing up.
We also did a compression test:
- RP also on 1 tap at 10 cm down.
- RP at 18 taps about 70 cm down on the facet layer.
Chose to ski mellow lines in tight trees because of concerns about sloughing at steeper angles.
hab.23,
Saturday 22nd February, 2025 11:30AM
Mount Begbie NE shoulder
Skier triggered a ~10 m wide ~60-70 cm deep slab on a small convexity in below treeline terrain at about 1400 meters on the NE side of Mt. Begbie. Photo shows additional long shooting crack that runs uphill from the crown.
firedrive307,
Friday 21st February, 2025 12:15PM
Shooting cracks
Riding in dense trees most of the day then near the end decided to climb up a cut block which wasn’t super steep and was surprised to find some shooting cracks in the snow as we side hilled our way down. Avalanche forecast was moderate, always got to be on the lookout!
robgordstephens,
Thursday 20th February, 2025 4:00PM
Carpenter Creek
cindy.a.hall,
Sunday 16th February, 2025 3:00PM
More slack country!
Another good day around RMR. Visibility was poor in the alpine in the morning, but ok around treeline and got better later in the day.
The little snow refresh from last night was nice, and again east and north aspects skied well where there was no wind effect.
We found a little sketchy and punchy wind slab at tree line on a shallow unsupported feature, no propagation or cracking, but tricky to navigate.
Demonic Pancake,
Saturday 15th February, 2025 12:00PM
Le loose country
Still cold out there, but mostly sunny until the thin clouds showed up in the afternoon and didn't notice any wind.
We found some nice cold powder amidst all the tracks and variable snow on North and East aspects that didn't get too much wind. Very easy sluffing up to size 1 in steeper & shallow terrain near ridge top and start zones. Super light, but travels far.
The snow is very variable in Kokanee bowl and the Natural Selection face. Punchy wind slab and facets at the top. Nothing too sketchy with current conditions and if you like jump turns, this is great for you!
Demonic Pancake,
Wednesday 12th February, 2025 12:00PM
Retallack
Spent the last three days touring/sledding in the kaslo zone. Hit Schroeder/retallack and a summit of mt Brennan.
Overall good ski conditions were had throughout but very cold in the alpine. Wind effect was widely observed at high alpine areas. We observed little in avy activity but did have one settlement on a sw aspect. We dug a quick pit. HS 155. Sudden planet collapse on the 50-60cm storm layer CT14.
Track to Brennan in great shape. We kept in conservative in slope angle but the heli skiers were being more adventurous and had skied steep west/north lines.
jensradetzki,
Monday 10th February, 2025 11:00PM
Whitewater
A lot of tree bombs made the snow quality really variable. We found some nice open area to get good turns in fresh snow.
pauline.goudoffre,
Sunday 9th February, 2025 12:01AM
McRae skiing
Snowpack was wind affected but right side up and rode nicely. There was evidence of a natural avalanche cycle that happened last week through the storm. And our pit showed results on the new storm and wind deposited snow on the hoar frost layer. We rode supported terrain and didn't notice any whumphing, cracking or remote propagation.
prodige5_14,
Sunday 9th February, 2025 12:00AM
Slack country
We toured up to Kokanee ridge. It got moderately busy up there, but we still found good snow on a north east aspect with no wind effect. There is a wind slab sitting on a crust in the start zone of Kokanee bowl, but didn't seem to be reactive.
There are few questionable skin tracks exposed to steep or popular lines.
We saw a few small avalanches up to 1.5 at the end of day. They looked like skier triggered in steep and cliffy lines.
Demonic Pancake,
Saturday 8th February, 2025 12:00PM
Small wind slab on Bear face
We triggered a small wind slab (20cm deep) on the way down on a cut block. Pretty wind affected on north-east aspect. Still a lot of good snow
pauline.goudoffre,
Saturday 8th February, 2025 1:00AM
Small wind slab on Bear face
We triggered a small wind slab (20cm deep) on the way down on a cut block. Pretty wind affected on north-east aspect. Still a lot of good snow
pauline.goudoffre,
Saturday 8th February, 2025 1:00AM
Whumps on ridge lines
Several whumps on ridge lines and ridge line lees, stayed on lower angle supported terrain, 1-2mm surface hoar present down 30-45 CMS in many sheltered areas
packhamavalancheconsulting,
Friday 7th February, 2025 3:00PM
Wind slab on Montana pk
rossgoski,
Friday 7th February, 2025 2:45PM
Fuzzy Knob
It was tracked out, but a beautiful day.
We didn’t see any signs of instability, but weren’t in areas where we’d expect to see much.
We dug a put around 1250m and saw a resistant planar result at ~15cm (10 taps) and a sudden planar result on the buried surface hoar at ~35cm (15 taps). We followed up with an ECT but neither of those weak layers propagated across the column.
kshahzada,
Friday 7th February, 2025 2:30AM
Cody Caves
steve,
Thursday 6th February, 2025 8:00AM
Fuzzy Knob
Went for a walk, dug a pit, and skied the mellow slope below my pit. Skiing was fairly tracked out in places but still lots of fun to be had on mellow slopes at the moment. Uptrack is in great condition as well. Experienced no winds for the third day in a row and air temp at 1250 was -12.
james.crotty.skis,
Tuesday 4th February, 2025 1:15PM
Begbie busy
Lots of tracks in begbie shoulder.
Surprised with the stability of the snow. We weren’t planning on riding 112, but dropped into 112 lower down after feeling more confident in the snowpack. Little signs of instability, but hand sheers definitely showed the SH layer down 50cm. The snow would come off as one big block.
112 is pretty tracked out and lower down skiing over lots of debris, probably a few days old.
The alders are growing too. Unfortunately
zeelenbergbrenda,
Tuesday 4th February, 2025 9:30AM
Fish Lake Cutblocks
AST 1 Course with Vitamin Ski! Thanks for the awesome day and all the learning :)
schmaltz95,
Tuesday 4th February, 2025 9:00AM
Burnt Knob
bcfrederica,
Sunday 2nd February, 2025 1:05PM
Begbie Shoulder
Skied from 2000m down to the parking lot. Top 100m was slow moving and sticky. Mid down to cut block was high quality powder skiing in the trees.
Dug a test pit at the 1980: ECTN14, CTM12 SC down 45 (on what looked like PP), CTM14 SC down 49 on SH, CTM16 SC down 55 on SH.
Saw what looked like remnants of a sz1 from yesterday in a steep gully across the way but didn’t get a good look at it or the runout. Looked like it failed on one of the above layers. Had some light sluffing on one steep section. Didn’t have the mass to move far though. Otherwise didn’t see any signs of instability where we skied today.
james.crotty.skis,
Sunday 2nd February, 2025 1:00PM
ALSAR AST 1
tj.boast,
Sunday 2nd February, 2025 9:00AM