Info a little dated but Todd’s post reminded me that I forgot to post.
Feb 5-12 in the southern Purcell's at Ptarmigan Hut. Temps generally mild - lows around –12, highs mainly around –5, with the 10th & 11th around zero. Only 5cm new snow throughout the week, on I believe the night of the 9th. Extensive wind effect in the alpine with lots of hard slab on exposed features.
Snowpack: generally well settled mid-pack with CTH resistant planar trending non-planar break, down around 45cm on the previous storm snow interface. This interface was consistently scoring RB7’s at all aspects and elevations. The pack, as elsewhere, overlies the Dec 24 crust/facet layer and 3-4mm facets to ground (about 20cm of them under the 051224 crust). They definitely don’t have the load down that way that the Selkirk's do (max snow depth observed was 230cm) , which is probably why there is a lack of natural activity from cornice drops and warming that the Selkirk's have witnessed as of late. While we didn’t push the terrain at all (it was a CAA Level 1 course so we spent most of the time digging profiles) I felt that the potential for a rather large skier triggered avalanche was certainly there, although low. Lots of thick-thin snowpack issues that is ripe for someone stepping in the wrong place to trigger an entir e feature.
Calling snow stability G/G/VG at the end of the trip, Hazard would have been Moderate/Low/Low... But that Moderate definitely has the potential to be big if you tickle the facets and December crust just right.
Best terrain I have seen for an avalanche course to date... I’d highly recommend it as a venue for an ARAC too...
Ian Tomm
Assistant Ski Guide
ian@avalanche.ca