Just back from 3 days of heli skiing and looking at a lot of terrain
from the air. The Selwyn range is the group of mountains east of
Valemount, on the east side of Kinbasket lake, bordered by Moose Lake
on the other side, and Robson Provincial Park.
We skied in the Swift Creek drainage, Bulldog Creek and Yellow Jacket Creek.
Our skiing has been sporadic so we went in with "open eyes" and
looking carefully for the numerous SH (surface hoar) layers our
neighbors around us have been monitoring. The depth of the snowpack
is between about 200cm in the north to 250cm in the south.(Bulldog
Creek) Winds seem to have been light over the last while.
Most of our skiing was on W, NW aspects. We don't have a lot of true
N facing terrain. In the northern part (Swift Creek) we did find
isolated areas of SH, down about 20cm. Deeper layers were either non
existent, isolated or hard to find. There has been very little for
avalanche activity in this area. There has been some minor solar
sluffing, one natural size 1.5 slab about 15cm deep on a north aspect
(cornice triggered) and not much else. We skied conservatively. In
this area over the last 3-4 weeks there has been about 20cm of new
snow, so a lot less than in the Selkirks, Monashees...etc.
Skiing in Bulldog creek there is signs of isolated avalanche activity
about one week plus ago, running on SH down about 20cm., size 2.5.
This was isolated and not a lot of adjacent activity on similar aspects.
Tests at treeline gave hard results. Some solar activity was noted
with point releases running to size 1.5, and one slab at ridge crest size 1.5.
Again searching...we did find Surface hoar on true N aspects, down
about 20 giving moderate results, at treeline.
There is however lots of SH now on the surface so will have to keep
that in mind.
Ski quality was very good, except anything that even glanced at the
south, which has a crust of varying degrees of break-ability....
These are limited observations. However when flying over large areas
and numerous drainages, the activity we noted was isolated.
Winds picked up yesterday in the pm with an approaching disturbance.
Feels like spring in the Valemount valley!
Peter Amann
Peter Amann
Mountain Guide
_______________________________________________
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