Sunny, but still not stable in Sparwood

Observed Feb 19, 2026, 2:00 p.m. PST · South Rockies

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Remote triggered Sz1 in steep terrain off the ridge. 40cm deep, triggered from 60m away. Ran through tight treesFlank of the remote Sz13rd remote triggered slab of the day, didn’t even realize we had set it off till we started backtracking down the ridge/skin trackAvalanche path we were on top of, but decided not to ski.

Quick report

Comment
Tried stepping out into some slightly larger terrain today, but it turns out the snowpack is still not ready for it. Less whumpfing or shooting cracks while trail breaking than any other day this week but we still ended up remote triggering 3 x Sz1’s. Average 40 cm deep, 40° slopes, east aspect around 1850m. Up to 80m wide crowns. Measured 58cm storm snow en route up to the ridge and probed between 170 and 190cm HS on a north aspect about 1700m. Right around this elevation we stopped noticing the underlying crust but this was only on the norths, still prevalent on the easts. Decided not to ski the line after remote triggering multiple slides but still had fun, deep turns in some lower angle, dense, supported trees to get back down. Will take a few nights of warmer temps (-10°c or above) to promote rounding and start healing this problem layer. Light breeze out of the south at ridgetop this afternoon, no sign of any significant wind affect on any snow all day
Weather
Cold, Sunny
Ride type
Dense trees
Stayed away
Alpine slopes, Open trees
Riding quality
Amazing
Snow conditions
Deep powder
Avalanche conditions
Avalanche condition slab, Avalanche condition sound