Big white Backcountry

Snowpack

kykliss · Nov 14, 2020 · North Rockies

View on map

Quick report

Weather
cold, cloudy, sunny
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
alpineSlopes, steepSlopes, convexSlopes
Riding Quality
Amazing
Snow Conditions
deepPowder, windAffected, powder
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound

Strange day. At and below 2050m the snow was extremely reactive but above that elevation and in wind affected areas the snow was non-reactive and skiable. Smart terrain choices were critical and we dug 3 different pits for observation.

Snowpack

CTE 1 SP 70 cm down on facets. The new snow is not binding well to the lower layers at tree line and below. On the way up in dense flat trees we witnessed around 30 different whumpfs. Once we reached treeline the whumpfs disappeared. Two highly different snowpacks between below treeline and above treeline.

Avalanche

We observed a 1.5 triggered before we arrived to the area that triggered on the convexity near a creek.