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Summary Have been skiing in the Pass from New Year's Eve to Jan 2. On Dec. 31 I had a great day skiing powder below tree line up the connaught drainage. We experienced chest deep powder turns from the recent large amounts of storm snow. This was the deepest snow i had skied in two years. There was moderate to strong winds blowing consistently from the south to south west all day. The ski quality had not change (from the winds) through out the day below treeline and in sheltered areas. Conditions at Tree line and above seemed alot worse and considerably different from the large amounts of new snow and wind.
On Jan. 1 another 5-10 cms had fallen overnight. Temps around -10 were observed and the winds had calmed. Again, i ventured up the connaught drainage. I observed numerous large natural avalanches up to size 3 up the grizzly below drainage. They would have released sometime during the previous 24 hours. One slide in particular had ran from ridge top to the choke of the grizzly drainage (about 1000m). The highways avalanche team were bombing in the area during this day. We had heard rumours of avalanche results to size 3.5.
On Jan. 2, I again ventured up the grizzly shoulder area but continued up the ridge towards little sifton. I had temps as low as -17 through out the day. There was evidence of the previous strong winds. Alot of the ridge crests were blown to dirt. Also to note is the 65 cm one finger slab that has formed in parts of Tree line and the Alpine. This slab (dense in places) is a combo of the winds, storm snow and the cool temps. It seems a large load is need to trigger this slab (i.e. cornice, bomb). But if it does preform, things could go to biblical proportions.
There has been much evidence through the media and other sources of information around the province of large scale avalanche activity over the course of the last few days. We are approaching one of the busier weekends of the year for backcountry and slack country users. Please use caution and your brains this weekend.
Jon Simms ASG
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