Now’s The Time To Roam

Submitted by: ghelgeson
Observations date: Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 22:00
Location: 51.058760° N 117.207050° W
Reporting on: Snow conditions

Quick

Avalanche

Snowpack

Weather

Incident

Snow conditions

Riding quality was:: Good

Comments

We went exploring at Silent Pass today and were pleasantly surprised to find the crust oh-so-thin and breakable. Thin enough, in fact, that you could ski it and actually have a pretty good time. Travel conditions are soooooo good right now, and with low danger, this is an excellent window to get out and explore.

In a protected treeline feature around 2200 m, we found the early January surface hoar layer about 50 cm below the surface. The crystals appear to be rounding and were not reactive in our test profile. We had a lot of confidence ripping around on all sorts of terrain today. It's green light conditions out there.

Yes, surface hoar is growing seemingly everywhere, and will matter once it gets buried. For now, travel is friendly, riding is fun, and the views above the valley cloud are hard to beat.

The riding conditions were great today, there was the slightest hint of a crust above 1800 m, but it was so thin and breakable that you could have skied it and had a good time.

a light Crème Brûlée of a crust, breakable, and yet still delicious

We were able to find the early January surface hoar down 50 cm, but it wasn't reactive in our test profile.

Hunting for buried surface hoar. Note the 5 to 6 mm surface hoar sitting on the.... surface

The views above the valley cloud were firing again today