[MCR] Southern Purcells ski touring

Couple of more days ski touring up the St. Mary's Valley. 

 On Thursday went up Dewar Creek near the southern part of the St May's Alpine park.  We skied a north facing bowl.  There was 110cm of snow at 2000m and 185cm at 2400m.  Skiing was very good.  Some signs of old avalanche activity during the last big system last week out of cliffy steep terrain.  No signs of recent activity.  We dug a few test snow profiles looking for buried surface hoar layers and did not find any signs in the area we skied.  The snow pack felt fairly settled for this time of season and well bonded. The snow pack above treeline was quite variable in depth and I would be concerned in steep convex shallow slopes in the alpine.

Yesterday ski touring up Hellroaring creek branch C.  Started to head towards some north facing terrain and observed widespread settlements and cracking in the upper snowpack while skinning. The warm temperatures and react strong winds have rapidly settled and consolidated the upper snow into a soft slab.  We found well preserved surface hoar up to 10mm buried down 60cm which would be the Nov.28th layer.  Decided to change our plans and head over to the south facing slopes which we skied earlier in the week.  

I main concerns are steep convex shallow terrain in the alpine and surface hoar pockets in northern aspects.

ACMG Ski Guide

Dan Madell

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