South Island

Green had a bit of everything today. Rain below 900m, wet snow up to 1250m and light snow above. Winds were intense in open areas and near the summit (50km/h+). Approx 20cm fell by mid afternoon above 1100m. No natural avalanches seen. Skier triggered small wet slide in the afternoon on 35degree West facing meadow slope. 10m wide ran 25m. Mosaic also added a bunch of annoying cross ditches along the whole branch road…

We attempted to ski the Bruggers gully on Sunday April 2. We found plenty of fresh snow in the alpine that seemed to be settling pretty well. On north aspects there are lots of layers! In compression tests we found 2 separate interfaces on the new snow down 10 and 20 cm (approx) that failed on moderate taps. More concerning was a third layer down approx 50 cm that failed on hard taps. The crusts are slow to heal on the shaded north faces! We had ECTN on both surface layers with hard taps and could not get the lower layer to pop at all. Based on the ECT results we decided to climb on. Boot packing was incredibly punishing in the deep snow and we wallowed upwards, as we neared the choke the couloir started to sluff frequently and we opted to turn around. We also noted some snow falling as graupel. The snow was stellar but good sluff management was required. There is still cold fluffy snow out there! Go get it!

Spring solstice inspired us to head south in search of dream (on) turns at the old Mt Arrowsmith Ski Area on Mt Cokely. The Pass Main logging road quickly turned from dirt to snow at around 700 m. We had no problem snowmobiling up the t-bar run to the top of the old ski hill. Skinning up the ridge to the peak of Mt Cokely was a bit of a choose your own adventure with the ski pen being 0 cm! With one of us boot-packing and the other skinning it was fairly quick travel to the top. Recent new snow has bonded very well to the surface with the help of warm temperatures. The top 5 cm of the snowpack is a melt freeze layer, but to our delight was not penetrable on skis for our descent! We noted significant pinwheeling on solar aspects, up to the size of an exercise ball, but no new avalanches observed. All in all, a fun day in the mountains.

Approx 5cm fell during the day and temps remained below zero. 2m+ snow depth above 1100m. Notable sun crust present on solar aspects under the recent snow. Alpine slopes wind affected and not great to ski. Protected trees slopes and north facing terrain skied great down to 1050m elevation on fluffy snow.

Headed down South Island and checked out Mt Cokely today on the hunt for wind slabs. We made it to 7 km on Pass main before jumping on the sleds and getting to 1450 m. Snow surface was variable with a mix of crust, some dust and wind slabs. Sustained moderate to strong winds has moved most of our new snow and formed 5-15 cm wind slabs all the way down into treeline. As we walked around the summit approach at 1500 m, it took some force to produce sluggish cracks that did not propagate much past the ski tips. Any snow that we could get to move was failing on soft snow a few cm's above the crust. As we headed back down we were stoked to see skies darken and snow starting to fall.

tried for the hourglass but snow down low on the road delayed our start. Awesome turns in the bowl, snow was cold but not incredibly light. The clouds kept the sun at bay. By 2 there was significant solar effect at 1100 m and below.

Made our way up to explore around Hidden Lake. Snow became very wet as the day progressed with about 15cm on top of a firm crust. No avalanche activity aside from plenty of pinwheeling. Snow depth at 1100m was 1.5m

We finally made it back down south to see how things are shaping up headed into this next storm system. The snow line is sitti g around 1100m, below that it is full on mountain biking season. From 1200m and up we were happy to find that what has been a polished crust in much of the rest of the region, has 1cm of wind blown snow softening the surface for some pleasant but variable skiing. The crust under this snow changes from being fully supportive BTL and TL to being breakable in the Alpine. We started out in the sun and watched the clouds build throughout the day. By the time we made it back down to the truck, there were gentle snowflakes beginning to drift down from the sky. We are looking forward to the refresh that is coming, but keep these crusts on our minds.

Rapid temperature increase caused tree bombing and pinwheeling to 1400m. Below 1400m snow was becoming slushy. Signs of recent rain creating a thin crust above 1400 and a thick crust (not penetrable to the ski) below 1400. Below 900m temps were too warm for the crust and ski penetration 6” was noted. Skiing caused 0.5 wet slabs on sun affected slopes steeper than 35 degrees.

Tried arrowsmith main gully. Snow was rock hard and generally icy. Did 2 hand sheers, first one no result. Second, with much effort and an ice axe a 15 cm thick windslab was excavated, but it was well bonded. Snow was just barely starting to warm at 2 pm.

60cm and counting on Heather’s weather station in the last 3 days. Snow was heavy but soft. No signs of instability but stayed out of the alpine and didn’t leave the logging road. 20cm @450m, 1.2m @950m

No recent natural or human triggered slides Surface was crust and death marbles. We were happy to have ski crampons. Crust was strong enough to support on descent.

Rain at 1425m

Skied Heather today via N32.2. Hiked to 600m and put skis on there (probably should’ve gone a bit higher). From 750-900 there was an annoying breakable crust, and from 800-950 the road was hard to travel along due to alders and open creeks. Skiing of the summit we enjoyed a very nice line. Snow conditions where a wonderful dust on crust: approx 7cms of fresh snow on a very forgiving crust.