A day late

Quick report

marshall.dempster · Feb 5, 2021 · Kootenay Boundary

View on map

Quick report

Weather
stormy, cloudy
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, denseTrees, convexSlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
steepSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
Amazing
Snow Conditions
deepPowder, windAffected
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSnow

Well seems like we were a bit late to the party. Traveled through a good portion of Allen creek today. We began our day with little trust in the snowpack. Lots of reports of natural and sled triggered avalanche activity over the last few days. I’m here to confirm those reports. We observed numerous natural slides on almost all North to East aspects with a slope angle greater than 30 degrees. They ranged in size from 1 all the way up to the full path release in avalanche alley (sz3) leaving over 3m of debris across the trail. Based on the reports as well as the amount of new snow sitting over the debris we suspect these events probably occurred at least two days ago. The failure plane was a preserved surface hoar layer down 30-70 cm deep depending on the amount of wind loading above it. We also spent a good chunk of time testing small slopes with our sled and we’re only able to get the one failure(see photo).