Over a meter of snow fell during the week. The storm board had 80 cm on it at one point, with
ski penetration up to my hips at times. Temps remained cool, mostly ranging from -5 to -9
although on Dec 21 it dropped to -26 on our only clear day. Winds were light early in the week,
then moderate and southerly Wed-Thurs.
The 80-100cm of storm snow overlies a 10 cm thick weak layer (4F to 1F-) of rounding facets,
which in turn lies over a hard rain crust. This layer has not been reactive in the Kokanee area,
although we were treating it with caution. Windslabs on the surface seemed to be the main
concern late in the week.
An avalanche cycle occurred late Wednesday and into Thursday, soft windslabs 50 cm thick, size
1.5-2 and seemed to be predominately on north aspects in the alpine and SW crossloaded
aspects in treeline areas. They did not seem to be stepping down to the facet layer.
At the end of the week we were rating Danger at Considerable in the alpine, Moderate at
treeline and Low below treeline. We were avoiding wind effected areas and not exposing
ourselves to large features.
Mark Klassen
IFMGA/ACMG Mountain Guide
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