Hawk ridge / increased hazard on solar aspects?
AvalancheCMcGee · Feb 5, 2021 · Kootenay
Quick report
- Weather
- stormy, cloudy
- Ride Type
- mellowSlopes
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes, steepSlopes
- Snow Conditions
- deepPowder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSound
After having skied a lot on the western side of the highway this winter we were surprised to find a very different snowpack on Hawk ridge. We found 30-40cm storm snow on top of a pretty faceted snowpack. This storm snow whumphed and settled wherever the sun has kissed the slope snd made the new snow into a more cohesive slab. We had 1 size 1.5 Skier remote from a few metres away on a steeper SW facing slope at 2000m.
Snowpack
- Ski Penetration
- 30
- Cracking Observed
- 1
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow, crust
- Whumpfing Observed
- 1
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- facets
After having skied a lot on the western side of the highway this winter we were surprised to find a very different snowpack on Hawk ridge. We found 30-40cm storm snow on top of a pretty faceted snowpack. This storm snow whumphed and settled wherever the sun has kissed the slope snd made the new snow into a more cohesive slab. We had 1 size 1.5 Skier remote from a few metres away on a steeper SW facing slope at 2000m.
Avalanche
- Run Length
- 40
- Slab Width
- 40
- Trigger Type
- skier
- Wind Exposure
- noWindExposure
- Avalanche Size
- 1.5
- Trigger Sub Type
- remote
- Start Zone Aspect
- SW
- Trigger Distance
- 5
- Start Zone Incline
- 36
- Avalanche Character
- persistentSlab, stormSlab
- Number Of Avalanches
- 1
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2000
- Weak Layer Crystal Type
- facets
- Start Zone Elevation Band
- btl
- Avalanche Occurrence Datetime
- 2021-02-05T13:30:00
We had 1 size 1.5 Skier remote from a few metres away on a steeper SW facing slope at 2000m. Suspect this was due to the storm snow being effected previously by the sun and becoming a more cohesive slab on the facets