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Hello skiers and riders,
Observations from Baldface catskiing’s terrain, just outside of Nelson – collected at guides training, Dec 19 – 21.
The snowpack looks very inviting, as we’ve had a lot of powder snow fall over the last little while. However, we found it to be exceedingly dangerous. A solid raincrust which got buried in early December has a layer of weak facetted snow above it, and surface hoar crystals were found on top of the facets in many of our snowpits. This unfortunate combination of weak snow over a hard sliding surface is now buried 70 – 90 centimeters down.
The depth of the weakness and its propensity to propogate widely is resulting in large avalanches up to size 3 which are easily triggered by the weight of a skier. These conditions exist on all aspects, and any steep open area from below the treeline to mountain top is suspect.
This will be a problem for a while, maybe a long while around here.
For whatever reason, this layer is reportedly not as reactive a few drainages away, as per Mark Klassen’s MCR report on Kokanee, but other local observers to the south and west are finding it to be as touchy as we did at Baldface. We rated the stability poor and the hazard high.
Hoping everyone’s safe,
Joel McBurney
ACMG Ski Guide
Nelson, BC
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