What a day! the weather around Golden these past few days has been glorious with sun and warm temperatures in the alpine. The warm alpine temperatures from over the weekend brought with it a pretty impressive avalanche cycle on many aspects as the snowpack reacted to the warming. Monday and tuesday saw a switch in temperatures and a return to more seasonal values. Today we toured north of the resort and skied NW, N, and E aspect shots with great fast snow, and nice long runs. Throughout the day we saw lots of evidence of the recent avalanche cycle with many cornices failing at some point over the past few days. With that in mind we gave cornices a wide berth and tried to limit our exposure to big overhead hazards. !Overall a great day skiing some new terrain (for me) right out the back door. Of importance is the widespread surface hoar growth on almost all aspects and elevations! Enjoy the clear weather, and remember whats on the surface now when the next storms roll in

What a week!  100+cm in 8 days at Kicking Horse!! 

Enjoyed Mother Nature's Bounty in multiple areas this week - Northern Selkirks, Dogtooth Range, Quartz Creek and of course at Kicking Horse Resort.  Man did she provide!

 

As the week progressed avalanche conditions became very touchy.  During my travels I observed numerous natural avlanches on almost all aspects as well as a few skier triggered or skier remote triggered avalanches in steeper, windloaded  terrain. 

Reports from around the area trickled in - natural size 3.5-4 out of the clamshell with debris piles up to 15m deep!  Skier remote size 3 outside the Kicking Horse Resort boundary with a crown depth up to 1m deep!  Nov. basal weakness waking up in steep rocky terrain as this new load brought buried persistent weak layers back to life. 

With this info on the brain, we once again stuck to mainly treed or lower angle terrain.  Didn't matter though, the skiing was awesome!!!  Now we're in a bit of a weather lull - maybe a few days of sun...  As we poke further out into the areas we love to hit I hope we all remember what's still under our feet...

The snow has been continuing to pile up in the dogtooth range these days! Yesterday I went for a little sled access touring in the dogtooth range in search of these piles. The avalanche danger was on the rise yesterday with a forecast of high/high/considerable we chose terrain that allowed us to feel things out before commiting to the lines. We skied a nice north facing treed avalanche path with lots of mellower entrances. Throughout the day light snow was falling, but no sign of the forecast winds that were to accompany the storm. Since we were skiing in a sheltered bowl we chose to cut our day short and head out as we were not sure what was going on at ridge top. As soon as we came out of our sheltered little playground we were greeted with strong winds and rapid loading. Felt good to cross the avalanche paths and head out before things really picked up. Today... the winds picked up... the snow came down, and man was she DEEP! Happy 2 meters!

It never takes more than the first couple of turns to be reminded how good the skiing in the Dogtooth Range can be! 

The recent storm snow has settled significantly over the last few days resulting in that silky goodness that pushes back against your skis or board as you press into your turn.  We found our bounty in areas sheltered from the recent winds that wreaked havoc on exposed north through east aspects.  In those areas, new cornice and slab formation made for a touchy surface instability that has not totally healed yet. 

 As the video updates have mentioned, we are also dealing with a couple of nasty persistent layers capable of producing large distructive avalanches if triggered.  Results on these layers have become less frequent but knowing they were there, we chose terrain that we had significant historical info on (ie. past avalanches or significant skier compaction). 

There's some great skiing to be had out there right now!  Man, I love my backyard!!

 

I asked for the same thing I ask for every year from Santa - Please bring me POW!! 

I got my wish early this year!  Spent Christmas Eve floating in knee deep pow!  We saw signs of recent avalance activity on the dec 11 surface hoar layer - anything steep and open had run 20-40cm deep and any steep roll that had not run was easily triggered with a quick slice.  We stayed tucked in the tighter trees until the slope angle mellowed out.  

Looking out the window, Santa is still delivering!!  Guess tighter trees and mellow slope angle is gonna be the choice for a while.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!