East Boulder Creek

Quick report

Ride Type

mellowSlopes, convexSlopes, alpineSlopes, sunnySlopes, steepSlopes, denseTrees, openTrees

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

powder, windAffected

Spent the weekend up at EBC to enjoy some spring powder skiing before we transition into freeze thaw. Overall, great snow quality above 1100M with 30-40cm of unconsolidated snow, siting on a supportive snowpack. Avalanche Activity: Generally, pretty quite with the exception of 3 size 1-1.5 wind slab avalanches in steep north facing terrain below ridge top on Saturday and Saturday night. These avalanches did not run very far. Also, some evidence of older cornice fall from earlier in the week that appeared to now propagate anything significant. Snowpack: The snow surface was mostly wind affected powder (see striations in attached photos) that skied light and fast. We were investigating for surface hoar between 1200m-1600m and although we found some ~40cm down (3-4mm degrading crystals), it did not yield any significant results (ECTN in the hard range). We also ski cut and stomped on numerous steeps, open, sheltered slopes below tree line and had no signs of this layer propagating or settling. The surface hoar is sitting on a 1cm thick (finger to pencil hard) layer with 4 finger and fist hardness snow above, and 1 finger hard snow below. The February rain crust is down 60-70cm and approx. 4cm thick and starting to soften (pencil to knife). this layer has a small amount of faceting on the underside, but did not have any results in snowpack tests, or step-down avalanches despite some winds slab and cornice fall. Weather: On Friday, a decent size pulse of snow delivered approximately 15cm at treeline and above, and was accompanied by moderate to strong winds from the SE. This yielded quality skiing in more sheltered terrain below ridge top on Saturday with sunny skies, and continued moderate winds from the S. At ridge top, slopes were becoming pressed and scoured, with lots of loading on N aspects. Sunday morning had clear skied, and calm wind, with an advancing system from the west by noon that brought more snow and wind throughout Sunday afternoon