It's still down there
Quick reportAVCAN FORECASTER · Mar 13, 2026 · St. Mary
Quick report
- Weather
- cloudy
- Ride Type
- mellowSlopes, openTrees
- Stayed Away
- steepSlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- powder
We went hunting south of the lake for info on the January weak layer that doesn't want to go away. We didn't notice any signs of instability on the sled in or our skin up, it was only when we dug a pit that we found something. The layer of concern was buried 140 cm deep in this spot and it still failed in tests (Deep tap test hard sudden planar). With the amount of snow above it, including a 6 cm thick crust, we thought triggering it would be unlikely.... but if triggered it'd be a scary large avalanche. So we stuck to mellow terrain and avoided being underneath large slopes and had great sledding and skiing. The recent rain crust was buried 40 cm deep, we couldn't feel it on skis, but it was a bit grabby and slippery on the sled.
Snowpack
- Depth
- 319
- Obs Type
- point
- Site Aspect
- W
- Test Fracture
- sudden
- Site Elevation
- 2000
- Test Initiation
- hard
- Test Failure Depth
- 140
- Site Elevation Band
- tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- crust, facets, surfaceHoar
Test pit in an open area in the trees. Deep tap test hard 26 sudden collapse down 140 cm on surface hoar size 5 (some much bigger) above a crust. Extended column didn't propagate Compression test had non-planar breaks.