Hi all,
We had an adventurous early season ski tour up the Yahoo glacier in the Purcell mountains yesterday. This north facing glacier is located 22km south of Bugaboo Provincial Park near the headwaters of Howser creek. We access it by vehicle via Howser creek forest service road east of Duncan lake. Due to the lack of snow at lower elevation, we were able to drive with-in a few kilometers from the end of the road to 1700m.
The snowpack varied from 40cm at 1700m to 130cm at 2700m on the Yahoo glacier. There was a significant snow depth increase around 1900m where the average snowpack went from 40-50cm to 90cm. Traveling conditions were good and snowpack quite supportive considering the low snow amounts and time of the year. The skiing above 1900m was quite good in smooth open terrain features
and the ski penetration was about 20cm. Below 1900m, the skiing was challenging on a "mainly" supportive 1-2cm crust. We had to be quite careful picking our lines and negotiating the early season hazards.
We did not see any signs of instability or recent avalanches. Our snowpack observations above 1900m showed a 2-3cm crust layer down 40-50cm similar to the one reported in the Rogers Pass area last week. The shears observed on this layer were in the moderate to hard "resistant" planar range and failing in soft faceted crystals (sugar like snow) just above the crust.
A fun adventure and great way to start a new season. Discovering a large ice cave at the toe of the glacier was the highlight of the day!
Cheers,
David Lussier
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
www.summitmountainguides.com
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