Whatshan

Remote triggered multiple sz 1- 1.5 today. Up to 50cm in places. Appeared to fail on facets on the rain crust.

Skiied dense trees on North aspects, 25-35 degree slopes, at an elevation of 4500ft to 5200ft.

AST1 East of Keefer Lake Lodge. Never took skins off, so no real skiing. Day was cool, light wind, mostly sunny. About 10cm of new snow.

The day was great, good temps, good company, nice and silky smooth snow. There is a new surface hoar forming. No signs of instability to note.

Temperatures were mild -5 °C. AST-1 course, ended up on a solar aspect, topped out at 1810 m. Did a compression test on 32° slope in sparsely treed cut-block, vegetative ground cover below snowpack. HS 90 cm, November crust down 45 cm, solar crust from Sunday 2 cm thick on surface, variable on slope. Results varied between CTH no results and CTM-15 dn 45 RP on November crust. We did notice good bonding above and below crust. Upper snowpack was decomposing fragments.

Great riding conditions yet again. Nothing but broken results in a Test Profile. Found this little unsupported roll and got it to go after 6 full bodyweight jumps.

Noticeable wind affected snow in open area near ridge top and lots of drifts. Decent Vis

How do I put this......... Daaaamn. That was DEEP! If not for the fact that we rode what seemed to be the foggiest part of the region it would have be an "epic". 30cm's HN24 (on average) of blower on top of a solid upside right snow pack. Crusts are now down 100cm and no SH was observed at 1900m on west and south aspects.

We played it really conservative this weekend. We found great riding even on East,South and West aspects where direct intense solar affect was not present. Noticeable changes in snow quality and density from the previous days out at Park/Nelson and Blue River. Headlight blower one day and widely varying 10-30cm sled pen the next. Noticed a LOT of wind affect, new ridges and increased cornice size. One group left early with a broken leg from a blind drop, and we had some close calls ourselves, OUCH! Above 1800m was great riding still cold but the snow was setting up. Decided to let all that new snow from last week to settle down before jumping back onto open slopes over 25deg. Perfect for friends to improve there skills. Always a way to have fun in high Avi conditions! Choose terrain wisely.

North east face compression test 110 cm to ground Ctm 11dn45 Resistant plainer on facets

South Fork was plowed for 13km. We drove to 1550 (about 15cm of snow on the road at this point) but several other vehicles had driven all the way to the parking lot of Vista Ridge. Road was skinnable and skiable to and from the car. Early season coverage in the trees was fine for skinning, but would be hard to navigate skiing in the forest below ~1700m. Skiing above 1800m was great: 15-20 of low density powder on supportive snow. Some wind effect and thin wind crust near the ridge.

No skiing, but snowshoe day at Mt Severide in the monashees. Only a few cm of snow at trailhead at 1350. Still drivable with regular SUV with winter tires. Been cold/under 0 degrees for the past several days, but during our day out it rose in temp to above freezing for everywhere below approx 2200. By end of day around 4pm at trailhead it was approx 6 degrees. There was inversion mid day as we saw clouds in the valley on both sides of the mountain. Most of the day had us traveling through wet powder above a wet, medium crust base. Both layers gaining volume as we rose in altitude. All terrain had less than 50cm of snow up until about 1900m when we put snowshoes on. At around 2200m, snow became more dry, sometimes unable to make a solid snowball. Didn’t have poles at this time, but couldn’t feel any crust nor dense layers beneath us. On summit ridge 2300-2500m, was waist deep of fluffy powder. Below this, we saw plenty of pinwheels, largest natural ones being bowling ball size. No signs of avalanches and no cornices forming yet. Unable to set off avalanches with snowshoe cuts on convex, ~40 degree slopes. Overall great day out. Definitely skiable conditions above 2100m.

Toured above Keefer Lake, lots of trees came down in the fall this year, making the 100cm base inadequate to ski safely. Started out bluebird at -2 and got overcast and very windy by noon. When we left the temp was +4. They need another 40cm to ski safely here. Possibly ok if you try some very low slopes.