[MCR] Hellroaring Creek, South Purcells

I spent today with members of the Kimberley Search and Rescue avalanche team  learning about avalanche safety and doing some skiing.  This area is located at the boundary between the Kootenay Boundary and South Columbia CAC public avalanche bulletin regions.  Here's a summary of our observations.


Weather: Clear skies in the morning, with thin clouds moving in for the afternoon.  Light NW winds, temps ranged from -3 to -7. 


Avalanche Activity: No recent avalanches were observed however there was evidence of a widespread avalanche cycle at all elevations during the large storm of mid-January.  Below treeline the fracture lines were still quite obvious but in the alpine most of the start zones have already been reloaded with the fracture lines hard to discern.  We skied the lower track and runout of one path that had avalanched during the storm and it was good skiing on the debris since it was covered in about 50cm of storm snow.


Snowpack: We did not find the mid-January rain crusts at the elevations we were skiing (1750m-2200m).  A test profile was done at 2100m in a south-facing treeline glade.  We found a generally well-settled and strong 215cm snowpack.  Compression tests resulted in an easy shear down 15cm within the yesterday's storm snow, and hard, resistant shears down 45cm within the mid-January storm snow.  A drop-kick on the shovel produced a shear down 120cm, failing in faceted snow mixed with decomposing 3mm surface hoar - we were able to get this layer to reluctantly react again with deep tap tests.  A deteriorating crust was discernible about 25 cm from the ground.  Today's clear skies allowed the sun to moisten and form a thin surface crust in open, steep, south facing areas.


A great day out with good quality skiing, with the added bonus of being able to access the area in style with Kimberley SAR's new winter emergency response vehicle, a 1974 Tucker Sno Cat! 


Jeff Volp

ACMG Ski Guide

CAA Professional Member

Kimberley, BC

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