Just finished a week at the Kokanee Glacier Cabin, but these conditions might be helpful for others traveling in the region
Spent the entire week skiing at 2000m and above, never dipping below. The week started out with cold snow on all aspects and by Sunday the big spring melt started. Wednesday was probably the hottest day with a temp of +8 recorded at 2350m in the afternoon. Needless to say, the snowpack is reaching isothermal conditions below treeline, and that elevation is slowly creeping up. There is still dry/cold/settled snow to be found on true north aspects above 2400m, however downslope winds have created some wind effected snow surfaces in the alpine. Any solar aspect is subject to suncrusts, and all aspects below 2400m are getting nightly melt-freeze crusts. No new slab avalanche activity was noted on shady aspects above 2000m, but below this elevation there was tons of loose/wet/point releases on all aspects, with one notable full depth slide at 1900m on a SE aspect above Gibson Lake. Loose point releases occurred to ridge top on solar aspects, and up to 2400m on north aspects.
A few more days of this will likely create more supportable corn skiing surfaces, right now it is not quite ripe, and the window is small to get these solar aspects as the treeline and alpine elevation solar aspects only have a 5-10cm stout crust at this point. Overall it was a transitional week for the snowpack, so keep that in mind!
Evan Stevens
IFMGA Mountain Guide
evan_stevens@hotmail.com
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