South Purcells

Riding quality was:

Amazing

Snow conditions were:

• Deep powder
• Powder

We rode:

• Dense trees
• Mellow slopes
• Open trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Convex slopes

The day was:

• Foggy
• Stormy
• Wet

Avalanche conditions

• 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.

We spent January 1-3rd in the S. Purcells.

Areas further North in the St Mary’s got slammed with storm snow.

Saturday morning had winds that were depositing snow on southwest aspects and creating slabs. Wind direction changed back to southwest winds that afternoon. Significant snowfall came in Saturday into Sunday morning. 45 cm in 12 hours at 1850 m. Snow was accompanied by strong sw winds.

That spooky deep persistent layer of facets and crust is apparent in the snowpack. Prior to Sunday most recent avalanche activity appeared to originate out of steep shallow rocky areas where snowpack is thin and appeared to have likely went on the other persistent slab layer that is now 60-100 cm down in snowpack. We did not stick around on Sunday morning as we perceived the risk too high and skiing mellow terrain was likely not an option with this deep snow. With all the storm snow it’s now challenging to see which slopes have slid as older debris and fractures are now buried.

The truck was just a little bit buried back in the valley bottom!