Silver King Ridge

Quick report

Kootenay Backcountry Guides · Nov 30, 2022 · McGregor

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Quick report

Weather
cold, stormy, windy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes, openTrees
Stayed Away
alpineSlopes, steepSlopes
Snow Conditions
powder

Snowpack

Went for a tour to the top of Silverking Ridge. The snowpack depth was highly variable depending on aspect and elevation. We found as little as 20cm on windward south aspects at ridgetop and as much as 175 in wind-loaded lee aspects at ridgetop. The snowpack averages 110cm in none wind affected terrain at TL. We dug a profile at 2000m in a wind-loaded location on N aspect near the top of Silver King Ridge. The snowpack was 160cm in this location. We did compression tests and found a layer of surface hoar that reacted easily and suddenly down 40cm. The November 27th surface hoar was found down 75cm and had a moderate sudden collapse result on it. The surface hoar was 5-10mm in size and was 5cm above the November 5th crust which has 1-2mm facets sitting on it. We don't really have a handle on the distribution of this layer at the moment due to a lack of field observations.