[MCR] Selkirks - Northern Valhallas

Just finished up our first two weeks of operations at Valhalla Mountain Touring and figured I would give an update as to conditions in this part of the world.

The unbelievable early season snowpack just keeps piling up with 60-100cms of new snow in the last week (BTL to ALP), with a 2 meter settled snowpack common at 2000m.  Right now we have two primary avalanche concerns in the snowpack.  The first is recently formed wind slabs at treeline and alpine locations with limited natural and skier reactivity in storm snow interfaces.  The second concern is at the bottom of the snowpack where 30-40cm above the ground is the Nov 6 crust/facet interface.  Although deep, with a super strong snowpack above it, I am still concerned of shallow rocky areas, or large loads on specific terrain features.  Travel to the alpine has been extremely limited lately as the weather hasn't really stopped, so limited observations there, but there is definitely some wind effect to be dealt with.  For now the skiing at treeline and below is as good as it gets, so who cares about venturing higher!  Expect pretty deep trail breaking conditions as well, with ski penetration in the 40-60cm range.

Be safe, happy holidays!

Evan Stevens
Mountain Guide
Valhalla Mountain Touring

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