South Purcell Front Ranges

La qualité du hors-piste était:

Excellente

For the forecasters at the CAA that have been asking for terrain photos - here are a few. For everyone that else that wants that sweet East Kootenay stash kept on the DL, I hope this ok.

East facing cornice threatened ridge at 2400m blazing in the sun - It hadn’t slid, but other east facing features at and below this elevation looked like they had small crowns that had run during the storm and had been refreshed with ~15cm of new snow. Great ski quality on east aspects.

W and SW aspects were stiff and wind affected as evidenced but the textured snow surface in the photo. They skied ok but were littered with treebombs and pockets of wind stiffend snow. Bit of an upside down snowpack on these aspects for sure.

Steep north faces had all slid and were covered over with 15cm. Cornices are growing!

Sun was out today but it stayed cool in the alpine and nothing was moving.

This weekend I’d be concerned with overhead hazard if the wind starts again, or the sun is strong, and where things haven’t released yet.

Stiff pockets of snow in steep terrain below tree line should be treated with caution because it was evident today they had the potential to release.

Snowpack above 1800m remains the sweet zone. Lower elevations improving.