(Surprisingly) Good Early Season Turns

Quick report

Weather

windy, cloudy, cold

Ride Type

mellowSlopes, openTrees, denseTrees, steepSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

windAffected, powder

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSlab

Kootenay Pass is filling in nicely for the year! Snow depth was fairly variable, ranging from 50cm to 80cm depending on elevation and aspect. Roughly of 30cm of fresh, unconsolidated snow on top of a firmer base. Hand pit on east aspect at 2100m just below ridge top had a planar failure on a graupel layer 25cm down. We pulled the plug at 1pm when wind picked up and a very reactive wind slab started building.

Weather

Wind Speed

windSpeedModerate

Blowing Snow

moderate

Sky Condition

brokenClouds

Wind Direction

SW

Avalanche

Run Length

10

Slab Width

5

Trigger Type

skier

Wind Exposure

leeSlope

Avalanche Size

1

Slab Thickness

10

Trigger Sub Type

remote

Start Zone Aspect

E, SE

Trigger Distance

2

Vegetation Cover

sparseTrees

Start Zone Incline

35

Avalanche Character

windSlab

Number Of Avalanches

2-5

Start Zone Elevation

2100

Runout Zone Elevation

2090

Avalanche Observation

12hrsAgo

Start Zone Elevation Band

tln

Avalanche Occurrence Datetime

2024-11-16T20:00:00.000Z

Remote triggered multiple wind slabs while walking along ridge top, slabs built while skiing.