Elsey - groomers and schmoo

Quick report

darthekai · Mar 1, 2025 · Kootenay Boundary

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Quick report

Weather
sunny
Ride Type
alpineSlopes, denseTrees, mellowSlopes, openTrees, sunnySlopes
Stayed Away
convexSlopes, steepSlopes
Riding Quality
terrible
Snow Conditions
heavy, wet, windAffected
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSlab, avalancheConditionSound, avalancheConditionTemp

Got quote hot about 10am. pretty chill day except a brief period of excitement when we set off an avy below us from the top of the ridge. Hang fire kept creeping the slide closer and closer to where we were standing. Skiing was like a groomer where it was wind effected, actually not bad. Deep heavy schmoo down lower. Another party was skiing a North face north of us and reported similar conditions (but theirs sounded better). pit on 25 degree open slope near treeline: hard result on column test. Sudden planar failure with very little resistance. Failed I assume in the exact same spot the slide triggered. A layer of cold facets under the storm snow. saw lots of recent avys in the alpine, mostly on north or north east faces in depressions.

Snowpack

Depth
160
Obs Type
point
Site Aspect
W
Test Fracture
sudden
Site Elevation
1950
Ski Penetration
5
Test Initiation
hard
Foot Penetration
50
Test Failure Depth
38
Site Elevation Band
tln
Surface Conditions
corn
Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
facets

Very sloppy snow. Loose. Sometimes knee+ deep ski pen. Sometimes ankle deep. Foot falls all the way down.

Avalanche

Run Length
370
Slab Width
20
Trigger Type
skier
Wind Exposure
crossLoadedSlope
Avalanche Size
3
Slab Thickness
60
Trigger Sub Type
remote
Start Zone Aspect
NW
Trigger Distance
6
Vegetation Cover
openSlope
Avalanche Character
persistentSlab, stormSlab
Number Of Avalanches
1
Start Zone Elevation
2050
Avalanche Observation
12hrsAgo
Weak Layer Crystal Type
facets
Start Zone Elevation Band
alp
Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
2025-03-01T19:19:00.000Z

Easy slide. Gulley feature full of snow, everything went down, cleaned the walls off as it went.