Kootenay Pass -

Quick report

Weather

windy, cold

Ride Type

openTrees, alpineSlopes, steepSlopes

Stayed Away

convexSlopes

Riding Quality

amazing

Snow Conditions

windAffected, powder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab

I spent Saturday and Sunday at Wolf's Ridge. Saturday was good riding with approximately 15 - 20 cm of dry powder snow on 3 cm of boiler plate rain crust. No wind effect on Saturday and no signs of instability on steeps or convexities. Just a wake up call on the occasional turn when the ice crust jumped up at me. However, Sunday brought strong Northwesterlies, as predicted. What had been stellar riding the day before was wind swept down to the boiler plate in the alpine. Plan B was leeward terrain with caution. All was great until treeline convexities which were cross loading significantly. I triggered a category 1 avalanche. That was the only incident.