Elma Brooks Ski Tour

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, sunny, warm, wet

Ride Type

denseTrees, mellowSlopes

Stayed Away

convexSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

crusty, deepPowder, powder, wet

Surprisingly great day out for a ski tour up the Elma over to Brooks and down. The storm largely held off and we got ~10cm of snow and fog then the sun even came out! Meagre thing conditions in the forest below 1250m. Snow depth was 145cm on the top of Elma. About 45cm over top of the rain crust Ski quality off W Elma to Col was surprisingly enjoyable. Stuck to treed low angle slopes. Ski cut a low consequence drop feature on Allan Brooks and triggered a minor slide. With this information the longer and steeper slope near the cliffs coming out of the Col was avoided and stuck to mature forest. ~1250m 15cm ski pen above the crust, ~ 1300m was wet and touch crusty with 45-50cm above raincrust, above 1350/1400m the snow was relatively light and made for some fun turns

Weather

Avg Temp

0

Min Temp

-2

Wind Speed

windSpeedModerate

Blowing Snow

light

Sky Condition

overcast

Snowfall Rate

1

New Snow24 Hours

10

Storm Start Date

2026-01-09

Temperature Trend

rising

Precipitation Type

snow

Snowpack

Depth

145

Obs Type

summary

Site Elevation

1400

Foot Penetration

30

Very brief - 140cm at the summit of Mt Elma. 45cm on top of the rain crust

Avalanche

Run Length

10

Slab Width

10

Trigger Type

skier

Avalanche Size

1

Slab Thickness

10

Trigger Sub Type

intentional

Start Zone Aspect

NW

Vegetation Cover

openSlope

Start Zone Incline

33

Avalanche Character

stormSlab

Number Of Avalanches

1

Start Zone Elevation

1448

Avalanche Observation

12hrsAgo

Start Zone Elevation Band

tln

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2026-01-10T22:31:00.000Z

There are few drops and terraces on Allan Brooks on the NW ridge. Around 1450m to check stability we ski cut the open slope and triggered a storm slab sluff. 10-15cm crown.