Greetings,
Just returned from a wonderful week of ski touring at Battle
Abbey, in the heart of the Selkirks. One of the best weeks of skiing
I’ve had the pleasure to experience in a couple of seasons!
Having arrived to clear skies and good stability, the first
night saw the start of 50-70cm of storm snow over the course of the next three
days, accompanied by strong winds from the S.W. Needless to say we found
ourselves tip-toeing around with the Feb 20th interface becoming
very reactive naturally and to skier control. Numerous natural avalanches
to size 3.0 and ‘endless’ skier controlled soft slabs to size
1.5. We rated stability poor/very poor in the alpine, poor at tree-line
and fair/poor below tree-line. The Feb 20th interface varied
in crystal type from suncrust/facets on steep solar, just good old facets and
scattered surface hoar on shaded aspects below t-line, and old wind slab in
other areas… Several other ‘stellar’ shears existed
within the storm snow as well. Most skier controlled slabs would start
within the storm snow and then quickly step down to the Feb 20th
layer. Fortunately, the results were entirely predictable and very easy
to control with ski cutting. We restricted ourselves to terrain
appropriate to such touchy conditions and we ‘ski cut’ each and
every roll, each and every day! The result was excellent, safe powder
skiing!!
On Wednesday the skies began to clear and we cautiously
began to venture further abroad. Downhill travel was excellent, but
uphill travel was extremely deep and slow! We progressed uphill much like
a wannabe Olympic relay team. Ski pen to 80cm. By the end of the
day we had upgraded our snow stability rating to 3 x fair, as we were no longer
expecting natural activity other than in specific terrain features. Sun
exposed slopes, wind slabs and possible cornice triggers remained a
concern. The ski quality was excellent on all aspects and at all
elevations that we observed.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday saw a rapid and consistent
improvement in travel and snow stability. By yesterday the storm snow had
settled and tightened in to a ski penetration of 20cm and were rating
stability 3x good. Though caution remained primarily on steep solar
aspects where the now buried suncrust/facet layer persisted and threatened to
become grumpy, as well as areas where concern for buried wind-slab
remained. We witnessed a large cornice release on Friday, 8500 feet, east
aspect. Large cornice hole, no avalanche. Regardless, we were skiing
on the “fair side of good”, as they say. And I’d expect
it to remain the same for a while yet…
Cheers,
Paul Norrie
ACMG Mountain Guide