Sunny, but still not stable in Sparwood

Riding quality was:

Amazing

Snow conditions were:

• Deep powder

We rode:

• Dense trees

We stayed away from:

• Alpine slopes
• Open trees

The day was:

• Cold
• Sunny

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

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