South Rockies
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 29th, 2025Crunchy but fun!
No signs of instability. Hard 5cm boot supportive crust above 1650m on all aspects. Could have used ski crampons but ended up boot packing easily to the top. Skiing was fun with the 10cm of snow but still loud. We saw an old avalanche from the probably Wednesday that released on a north aspect and ran to ground and across the skin track. Covered it with 2-3m of snow. Interesting to see it there as we expected it would’ve released.
JIMM5,
Saturday 29th March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Not Good
Tunnel Creek was wet and sloppy today below 1600 m, above this elevation we found a new surface crust that was already breaking down by early afternoon. We chose not to ski due to the very poor conditions.
Light precipitation fell on and off throughout the day, but with temperatures generally being above zero it was melting as it landed on the surface.
More new snow is needed before the skiing will be decent again.
southrockies,
Friday 28th March, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Hot and Sunny
Today we decided to avoid travelling in avalanche terrain and instead find a safe place to sit back and watch the action. We observed numerous wet loose avalanches in the Window Mountain area as well as a few slab avalanches up to size 2.5 on the ride out. The trail is still in great shape.
During the drive back to Fernie we saw numerous fresh slab avalanches in the Lizard Range. These avalanches were very large and had run far below treeline.
Today was a good day to enjoy the sun and non-avalanche terrain.
southrockies,
Wednesday 26th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025When life gives you rain, ride Coal Creek (or maybe not...)
Today we headed up Coal Creek to assess the impact of the rain and elevated freezing level. It rained all morning, saturating what little remains of the snowpack at lower elevations. The first few km of the trail is mostly bare ground. At 2200 m we got an air temperature of 2.5 °C, the upper snowpack was moist and settling rapidly at this elevation.
We observed some cornices that likely failed during the storm Sunday night/Monday morning. However, there are still plenty of large, overhanging cornices left out there.
The riding quality was poor, and combined with the elevated avalanche hazard, there is no good reason to venture into avalanche terrain currently.
southrockies,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 3:00PM
Mc Dermot Avalanches
giasson.william,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 12:00PM
Thunder Meadows snowpack
carleeading,
Monday 24th March, 2025 6:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Skiing North facing aspects of Forum Ridge
Fantastic powder skiing on the north facing cutblock and treed slopes of Forum Ridge. Dug an ECT pit at 1870m on a 25 degree slope facing due north near the top of the major burn area. Snow depth 2 meters. Results: ECT-X. Able to finally release the entire test block on the freeze/thaw crust at 85 cm after REALLY reefing and pulling very hard on the shovel at the back of the test block. No whumping or cracking while skinning up or skiing down. Tomorrow a major warming trend and possible rain will obviously change things.....
bradloveskitties,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 7:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Nitta Peak
Travel was between 1450m and 2650m. Down low was an unsupportive crust to facets which improved quickly with some elevation. Crown lines visible in steep N to E aspects at tree line and alpine. Some wet slides had occurred on steep rocky S aspects in alpine. Visibility decreased with elevation. Lots of wind effect on all aspects in alpine.
drijber,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 9:15AM
Windy Syncline lap
Day was pretty winding, shooting cracks and wind loading were observed on lee aspects as forecasted. No recent avalanche activity was observed. Rode S aspects in treed and semi-treed areas. No signs of instability.
graybruce5,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 9:01AM
Thunder Meadows March 23-26
March 23
Avy report: 221 Temp: -5 to -3 overcast
Skinned up the safest approach through cabin bowl. A previous well set skin track was mostly visible and usable for much of it, just covered by a few cm of fresh snow. Decent visibility until the last 100m elevation gain.
March 24
Avy report: 332 Temp: 0? Overcast and snowing in morning then sunny and hot later afternoon
Skinned up towards big steep planning to ski the west facing glades. There was an avalanche noted on the north aspect of big steep. At the ridge it was windy and west facing slopes were icy so we turned around and did a lap I. The South facing slope right outside the hut. Great skiing here and half of our group stayed on this side doing short mellow laps.
No whumpfing/cracking. Snow felt well consolidated but more wet and heavy than yesterday. Hand sheer tests on South aspect released 30-40cm storm slab SP with moderate pulling.
Came back to the hut when the sun came out and it felt too hot.
Got the updated avy report for next days and there was a drastic increase from the expected 332 to 444. Plan was to leave early the next day but with this info we went out to dig a pit on a NW aspect close to the hut similar to what we would be skiing down. See separate snowpack MIN. Column test immediately failed SP 135mm. Absolutely will not ski be skiing down even the safest route through cabin bowl.
March 25
Avy report: 444 Temp: ? Realized the outside thermometer was broken and stuck at 0. Snow melting off trees and snowpack has sunk at least a foot.
With the anticipated warming we should have taken the conservative approach and done a day trip up to the hut and back down on the 23rd when it was 221 and great snow.
Sharing so others can also learn from our trip planning mistakes. Stay safe out there everyone!
carleeading,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 8:00AM
Needle
Long walk back to ski a lovely treed corridor near Windy Pass. The morning had lots and lots of wind from the north making it quite cold up high with a good deal of transport and fresh wind effect, both on north and south aspects. Afternoon reversed the winds with warmer temps.
Saw some healthy cornices and a massive old crown. Bit of cracking while skinning but no other signs of instability.
espeters10,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 8:00AM
Pre Slush Cup Powder Laps
Great skiing above 1800m on south and SE aspects. Some wind effect but overall great snow. We found 190cm at 2050m and 50cm above the March 2 crust. We had medium effort hand shear results down 30cm. Quite a bit of snow transport during the morning that almost filled our skin tracks in between laps.
JIMM5,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche
bennydb88,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 2:00PM
Koko
Lots of large natural slab avalanches in mear, stayed away from everything just enjoyed the sun and fresh pow
andrewchaudet,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 12:05PM
Not spring yet...
Oh such great snow! Got some freshness off ridge 2000, then a wet and warm skin up to the steep mother chutes (lots of wet loose off rocks and tree bombs gathering mass). The chute had seen some wind making for a stiffer but still stable ride. By 12:00 it was really cooking but still had an amazing ski out Hilda's in dry powder.
espeters10,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Cabin bowl Jaunt
On Friday morning we set off early for thunder meadows hut to stay for the weekend. The recent snow proved to be thick and slippery which slowed progress breaking trail. We topped out just below goat pass at 1750m and made the decision to call it after experiencing strong winds with gusts reaching around 70km/h. We also observed big spin drifts on the head wall above the pass as well as numerous large cornices. Our main concern was potential wind loading and warming temps over the next couple days which might affect our ski out on Sunday.
Snowpack was generally in great condition and there were no signs of instability. HST was about 60cm and produced an uneven break in hand shears and ski cuts.
We did not observe any recent avalanche activity in Cabin bowl.
Riding quality was great and we had some great turns up higher around the treeline however after descending below 1500m the snow became noticeably heavier. We avoided the major convex slopes around this area of the bowl and hugged the trees on skiers right of the drainage before descending through the steep alder field to lizard creek and exiting.
phoebestallmann98,
Friday 21st March, 2025 9:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Conditions in Crowsnest
Great conditions in the Crowsnest Pass today. We staged at Atlas and rode past the sled cabin near Smith Creek into one of the bowl feature along the Divide.
Avalanche Summary - No new avalanche activity was observed but visibility was poor into the alpine. We suspect isolated wind slabs are building at all elevations, as new snow and previous soft snow was being redistributed by the moderate southwest wind with strong gusts.
Snowpack Summary - We dug a profile at 2050 m, treeline feature facing west. There was 200 cm of total snow depth which is at the upper end of the snowpack depths for this area.
There was 10 cm of new snow accumulated in the past 24 hours. This new snow overlies 50 cm of settled soft snow that fell last Saturday - Monday. The mid-pack is well-consolidated and sits on the January drought layer that was down 105 cm in this area. This layer is made up of facets that continue to the ground. The facets are gaining some strength and bonding together slowly.
Our snowpack tests results: Extended column test - No result, Compression Test Hard - 24, Resistant Planer, down 45 cm on a preserved stellar layer, Deep Tap Test on Jan drought Layer - No result
Weather Summary - Snowing roughly 1 cm an hour intermittently. Moderate southwest wind with strong gusts. Mild temperatures of -2.5 °C at 2000 m, mostly overcast.
southrockies,
Thursday 20th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025March Pow is the BEST !
Today in the Harvey area we found the most recent storm snow has settled and bonded to previous surfaces.
In this area we found the January 31st PWL (Persistent Weak Layer) down 115 cm with a consolidated mid pack above it. The layer itself is gaining some strength and becoming more consolidated than we have seen for many weeks.
We didn’t see any new avalanche activity and had no snowpack-test results
There was light southwest wind and generally cloudy skies keeping the surface snow dry, although lower elevation, steep south facing slopes were warming slightly.
The Lodgepole FSR in is a whoop-fancier's delight :-) !
southrockies,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 1:00PM
Mongolia Powder
Great riding in Mongolia Bowl. Small wet loose debris on solar aspects. Sun crust on S facing slope. Observed no significant signs of instability.
Dug a pit @1850m, N aspect, 30° slope. CTH25 on Jan PWL. ECT no propagation hitting shovel as hard as I could. Green light for pow turns!
Hunter Kirschner,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 12:00PM
Polar good, solar bad
Good riding on North aspects, crusty and challenging on south aspects. We skied below 1800m today in sheltered north facing treed shoulders. 5 cm solar crust on south aspects, and transitioning to a breakable 5-10cm wind skin above 1800m on all exposed aspects. Some sheltered chutes above 1800m may still hold good snow. Skiing quality improved the further north we moved in the range.
Height of storm averaged 60cm and was unreactive to skis, produced uneven break results in ect, ct, and hand shears. A mid storm interface was also noted 15cm down that also produced similar uneven break results in ect, ct and hand shears.
The PWL is down ~115cm at 1800m and produced no results with ect/ct tests, however continues to give a sudden clean failure when pulling on a column or hand shear.
Temps stayed below freezing above 1300m, and a cool light to moderate breeze was present all day.
samirsomji,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Corbin - New snow and Cornices
Today in the Corbin area we found 30 to 40 cm of accumulated storm snow from the weekend. This new snow adds to the upper snowpack over a melt-freeze crust that is down 60 cm. There were a few size 1 to 1.5 natural storm slab avalanches from steep south-facing alpine features.
We had no results in our extended column test and resistant results in the storm snow (Compression test results - CTE (RP) 6, down 20 on decomposing fragments, CTM (RP) 16 down 35 DF)
The riding was really good and supportive with a right side up upper snowpack over the crust. The storm snow is settling and with a few resistant test results, we stayed away from steep alpine terrain features.
southrockies,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 3:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avoiding the problem and finding the goods.
Skied south aspects 30 degrees and less and saw no signs of instability. The wind has not transported snow except for on high SW ridge tops and unlike most days in the CNP there was actually snow in the trees. Light to no wind, heavy snowfall at times, and 20-30cm of fresh snow made for great ski.
JIMM5,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 4:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Hello winter
First Creek had about 8” of fresh powder and snowed all day. Should be stacking up once the snowfall is done.
knkp19,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 11:00AM
Backside of Mt Fernie
Great day out behind Mt Fernie skiing NE aspect. 5-15 cm of fresh on top of crust from 1000 to 1700m. Great powder above 1700m with no concerning observations. Lots of old slide debris skinning up the Mt Fernie drainage from about 1150 to 1500 m
mayt,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 9:00AM
2000 Ridge
Older wet debris at the bottom of fish bowl and evidence of previous point release wet loose avalanches on the slopes and gullies above. We didn’t observe any crowns, however visibility was reduced due to snow falling throughout the day. Substantial, supportive crust up to ~1600m with 5-15cm of low density new snow on top (more at higher elevations). Above 1600m the near-surface crust faded. We didn't notice any signs of instability today.
Ron.Lakeman.Fan.Club,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 9:00AM
Proctor Storm Snow
Nice day out behind Proctor, very calm, snow globe flurries. Above the sea of debris, ski quality was good, with a nice 30-40cm of powder on top of various surfaces. Couple slabby spots, but kept it low angle.
Travel through the debris was much better than expected.
espeters10,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 8:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Boulders, and puddles, and mud... oh my!
Today it felt as though spring truly had sprung. We attempted to go to Powder Cowboy to assess the post-storm conditions but got re-routed due to lack of snow on the road. We didn't want to risk sledding into the area on a trio of mud, boulders, and puddles; after much deliberation (and a few crazy and probably not-so-smart schemes) we decided to call it a loss and head home.
Look at us.... adapting our plan to suit conditions heh??!
The temperature at the "staging area" was +2 at 10:30 am.
If you have been around this area, we'd love to hear where the new staging area is. And of course, post a MIN! We love to hear about your adventures :)
southrockies,
Friday 14th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Windy, Warmy, NewSnowy
Well, i guess its not news to say it was windy in the Pass today, but add the 5cm that fell overnight Wednesday=>Thursday and mention that it was Moderate to Strong wind, and thats a recipe for lots of wind-loading in the Alpine and Treeline …
We couldn’t see much (refer back to comments about windy snow storm), but the few glimpses we had into steeper terrain revealed numerous Natural Size 1 Loose Dry avalanches and a few shallow Sz 1 storm slab releases.
The day was overcast and warm, with zero degrees at midday at 1850 m, the snowpack depth (HS) there was 120 cm.
The snowpack continues to keep us on our toes, with 70 cm of consolidating soft snow over the “January drought” facet crystals, which are still not strengthening … (aka foot-penetration to ground!).
southrockies,
Thursday 13th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025"Persistent" Problem and Facet Farming
We spent the day up Nordstrom Creek and even though this area didn't get the deep snowfall that the Lizard Range got, it was still a great day to be out.
The snowpack is shallow in this area, with an average depth of 120 cm. We saw no new avalanches in our travels, but did have an attention-grabbing failure on the January Drought layer (ECTP17 down 50 on FC 2-4) when we dug into the snow. We dug a pit in a sheltered north-facing area and found the January drought layer down 50 cm. The base of the snowpack (well....everything below the Jan Drought) is poor. It is composed of large, loose unconsolidated facets. There is, however, a thick crust near the surface on all solar aspects that bridges this Jan Drought layer.
The day was mild with -2 being our lowest temperature. The wind was calm and the skies were overcast.
southrockies,
Wednesday 12th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025The Pure Joy of Mountain Travel
Variable riding conditions up in McLatchie today with solar crusts, surface wind affect, and a few old tracks (only slightly) dulling the pure joy of mountain travel.
We saw no new avalanches, and with only light West wind, saw no wind transport. The overcast sky kept things cool with a high of -2 at Treeline.
The snowpack was relatively shallow at 140 - 160 cm at 1900 m, with just a few cm of new snow over a strong 7 cm melt-freeze crust to ridgetop on solar aspects and below 1700 m elsewhere. We had no results in snowpack tests on the “January drought” Persistant Weak Layer, which we found 50 cm down.
southrockies,
Tuesday 11th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche 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, 2025Still some dry snow
Fun skiing today. We saw avalanche debris and crowns where we expected on steep south aspects and in the big runout on the east face of Tecumseh. Fun skiing in the trees above 1900m dry snow and less wind effects than expected. The south aspect was sticky and wet with an almost supportive suncrust under 5cm of wet snow.
JIMM5,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 9:00AM
Fernie North Bowl
Great windy day out in the north bowls of Mt Fernie. We found a couple nice turns among crusts and wind effect. The good skiing included dust on crust in the trees and down low, with some nice boot top dry powder on high north aspects. No whumpfing, cracking or any other signs of instability.
We dug at 2100m, NW slope, HS 260. CTX, ECTP23 down 70 on Feb storm interface.
espeters10,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025clear skies and cornices
With full sun and rising freezing levels to 2000 m we were expecting south-facing slopes to be soft and sticky but were pleasantly surprised to find roughly 10 cm of dry soft snow. Moderate to strong southwest wind was keeping the surfaces cool and driving soft snow into the atmosphere rather than building wind slabs.
There was some isolated wind affected snow at the ridge that was stiff and hollow sounding mixed with sustrugi. But no shooting cracks and very isolated distribution.
Cornices are large and overhanging in this area, something to keep an eye on.
The facets formed during the January drought remain a concern on north-facing slopes where there is no supportive melt-freeze crust. This layer is becoming more stubborn, there were no new avalanches in the area, and we had no results in our snowpack tests.
southrockies,
Friday 7th March, 2025 3:00PM
Dylan Boot
Hiking up I saw a wet loose avalanche debris.
The size looked to be about a 1.5 that went down into the gulley.
The snow was wind affected and was affected by the sun.
I assume the this happened within 48 hours.
booterboy17,
Friday 7th March, 2025 1:47AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Machine Accidental
Observations from SAR members attending incident site after subject evacuation. Crown depth was 40-60cm deep and likely failed on the January 30th interface. Very touchy conditions persist in this drainage. One full burial, excavated by other member in party.
brodiesmith.consulting,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 1:15PM
Little Sand access getting dicey
The main thing to report here is the access road is getting very dicey. Very little to no snow as you head up past the garage for quite a while. Hard going on the sled - bashing rocks and my temp light came on before I could find some snow to cool it off. In hindsight, I could have made better efforts to find snow in the bush had I known it was so far till snow.
Skiing on non-solar aspects was quite excellent. Powder on a supportive base. Significant sluffing of the non consolidated storm snow on steep slopes was the only sign of instability.
jimn,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 1:00PM
Skier remote avalanches sz 1 + sz 1.5 and sympathetic sz 2.5
Observations from SAR members attending separate incident lower down in the drainage. See avalanche details.
Also of note, one lone ski tourer in area today that was tip towing around the region solo.
Increased caution is recommended in this region due to reactivity of a persistent weak layer in varying aspects and elevations.
brodiesmith.consulting,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 1:00PM
Persisting In Crown
Another Spring-Adjacent day without too much change (ie awesome again!). High temp of -2 up on our ridge, calm to light breeze, some sun heat, but not baking.
We sledded up Crown Mountain and investigated the snowpack on a gladed North aspect near ridgetop at 2150 m.
The full snowpack depth (HS) was 170 cm, with 70 cm of February and March’s consolidating snow on top of the ‘January drought’ layer, which in this location is 30 cm or so of weak unconsolidated facet crystals.
We had a test failure on this layer (ECTP 30, down 70 on SH/FC), which confirmed our caution of high dry north aspects, particularly where the layer is less than a metre deep, and where (being north) there is no thick stabilising sun-crust.
Access is lil’ muddy and lil’ icy, but manageable as far as the big slide path off the North end of Erickson Ridge … it has run and now blocks the forest road (impressively! :-).
southrockies,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 1:00PM
Dust on Debris
Poke up fairy creek, hoping for some dust on crust or powder but found dust on debris. Lots and lots of debris up to size 3. Higher looked better but sun was shining hot and travel slow on the debris.
espeters10,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 7:30AM
Cameron Lake Touring
Three days riding various aspects around Cameron and Wall Lakes. Widespread temperature crust present on all aspects overlayed with 5-20cm of dry snow made for enjoyable supportive riding that sometimes necessitated ski cramponing. Plentiful evidence of the widespread avy cycle with numerous large slides noted including several size threes on N, E, and S aspects. No new instability noted.
stevencameronnoel,
Wednesday 5th March, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025PowPow @ PowCow
Good trip up Little Sand Creek today, despite the icy-melty-puddley-muddy approach from the staging area on the Bull FSR.
The day was calm with a high temp (up in the terrain) of -2, overcast all morning, sunny in the afternoon.
Once up to treeline, we found 20 cm of light dry overnight snow added to the 5 cm from yesterday. The new snow has a reasonable bond to the old surfaces (which include a 5cm sun-crust on solar aspects), although we did see some Dry Loose avalanches out of high, steep, rocky terrain on the back of the Lizard Range.
Digging on a North West aspect at 1950 m, we found the ‘January drought’ interface of buried surface hoar and facet crystals 100 cm down in a deep snowpack area, and did some snowpack tests. No results in Compression or Extended Column tests, but we had a hard, resistant result on the January layer in a Deep Tap Test.
With our observations and tests, were happy to ski moderate angle terrain in the deep snowpack area where we were, but decided to stay away from thinner, shallower, or rocky areas where we might have triggered a thin-to-thick release on the Persistant Weak Layer we’ve seen discussed in the avalanche forecast.
(take a look at ‘Thin Spot’ and ‘Shallow Rocky Start Zone’ at avalanche.ca/glossary).
southrockies,
Wednesday 5th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Dry High North
Today in Corbin in the Barnes Lake area the effects of the warm temperatures and clear skies from the weekend were obvious. A fairly widespread avalanche cycle with more activity on south aspects was observed. Numerous large (size 2 to 3) slab and loose wet avalanches have released down to the persistent weak layer.
Overnight cool temperatures and a cloudy sky today have contributed to the development of a melt-freeze crust on all aspects below 1700 m and a solar crust above this on everything but north aspects.
There was roughly 5 cm of new low density snow on the surface that has buried the surface crust with a layer of stellars (snowflakes).
We were still suspicious of north facing terrain due to the widespread persistent weak layer but had no results on our snowpack tests. Still some decent skiing and riding on North aspects where the snow remains soft.
southrockies,
Tuesday 4th March, 2025 1:00PM
Hang Ten
We rode Hang Ten Tuesday morning after McDermott got 7cm fresh fluffy snow! Particles were dendrite 2-3mm. Nice snow quality as it’s on a shaded aspect. Pretty crusty on the skin up in sunny areas and under trees. We rode this line every day from March 1-4. Prior to the snowfall Snow was wind affected but still soft for good skiing - no crust on this aspect.
nicole.blanchard8,
Tuesday 4th March, 2025 7:00AM
Dry Lizard
We found good skiing on North aspects 1700-2100m. Varying thicknesses of MFcr elsewhere. Mild temperatures throughout day snowing S-1 accumulation was around 3cm by the end of the day.
sambaker21,
Monday 3rd March, 2025 1:00PM
Tunnel Creek Feb 28-Mar 2
Up at the hut for a couple nights. Snow conditions highly variable depending on aspect, elevation and temperature. Dug a pit on a NE aspect at approx 1800m and found the PWL about 85cm deep CT14. Multiple fractures and debris observed from previous cycle but surprisingly little sign of new avalanches observed other than on south aspects. Even with the lack of avalanche activity our confidence was low due to rapidly changing temperatures so kept it pretty mellow. Beautiful weekend in the mountains!
ben.gollat,
Sunday 2nd March, 2025 2:00PM
The Spring of Deception has hit hard
We took the simplest way up and down the Mammoth Head, keen to enjoy the sun, clear skies and a good view.
We saw evidence of many natural size 1 wet loose avalanches and two large avalanches, size 3, presumably where wet loose had stepped down to the persistent layer. One we saw running in a W/SW aspect on the back of the Elephant head scored to ground close by, one in the distance on a more E/SE aspect (see photos)
Tree bombs were the hazard of the day, lots of tree damage from yesterday afternoon, we had our heads on a swivel while skinning and made sure to get home early.
Even more fun, we saw the beginnings of some cheeky hoars forming in shady spots… we’re thinking adding this in with the mixture of crusts should make the next storm one to watch.
Ben Ingle,
Sunday 2nd March, 2025 11:00AM
Middle Kootenay Pass
roosterwoodcraft,
Sunday 2nd March, 2025 9:00AM
McDermott
We did a snow profile test on NE aspect then rode Hang ten. It was sunny with lots of warming. Snow bombs from trees and lots of precip melting off of trees in the sun. In the sun snow is cream cheese, in the shade on hang ten was slight wind affected but still good riding. No instability observed on the ride down.
nicole.blanchard8,
Saturday 1st March, 2025 9:00AM
A day of Hot Fish Soup
Avalanche summary: Observed two or three avalanches one up to a 2.5 natural center Fishbowl, hard to tell last 24-48hr old. No other signs of instability.
Structure: 20cm of snow above 26th Feb melt freeze crust. Snowpack depth at 1270m 110cm, Surface was moist at least down 10cm
Weather: Clear warm, high of 5c, @ 1300M @ midday. HOT!
cheyenne.widmer,
Friday 28th February, 2025 3:00PM
Sunny South York
Today in the York Creek area of the Crowsnest Pass we found an extremely wind affected surface of hard wind pressed snow mixed with sustrugi. The new wind slabs formed from Thursday's strong SW winds are bonding to previous surfaces.
On solar slopes the hard slab was becoming moist, but the light to moderate SW wind was slowing the warming. The top 10 to 15 cm were becoming moist on slopes impacted by the sun, and more pronounced below 1500 m.
We did not observe any new avalanche activity, but we did get a reactive test in our snow profile down 70 cm where the consolidated upper snowpack is not bonding to the facets formed during the cold temperatures of late January. This continues to indicate potential for propagation (slab avalanches).
southrockies,
Friday 28th February, 2025 12:00PM