Hi all,
I spent the last few days guiding in the Kootenay Pass area. As most other areas in southeastern BC right now the skiing here is excellent. We skied supported open glades and planar slopes up to 38 degrees between 2200m and 1450m in the headwaters of Lost
creek and Wolf creek. The average height of snow at treeline in this area is about 170cm and the recent settled storm snow amounts overlying the December 10th layer area in the 50-70 cm range. This storm snow displays a perfect stiffness gradient with widespread
low density powder overlying an increasingly stiffer and supportive snowpack. We observed very minor wind affect even at ridge top. We saw no new avalanches and no signs of instability.
Today we did a test profile at 2150m on a south aspect (Missile Ridge) and observed a moderate resistant shear down 35cm on decomposing surface hoar to 3mm and a hard sudden result down 55cm in soft sugary facetted snow just below the December 10th layer.
The crust at this location was a 2 cm thick ice layer. Despite the Moderate avalanche hazard and fantastic skiing in this area, we only saw a few people out there today. The incoming weather pattern is pretty stable and conditions should remain similar for
most of the week.
Enjoy the great skiing & happy holidays!
David Lussier
acmg mountain guide
www.summitmountainguides.com
