Dogtooth Avalanches & Surface Hoar
Observed Dec 31, 2025, 11:30 a.m. PST · Purcells
This report was submitted with an older form.
Quick report
- Comment
- Out for a walk in the backcountry north of Kicking Horse today, lots of people out enjoying the snow. Saw a large slab (sz2.5 out of steep, rocky terrain (see 'Avalanche' tab) that I suspect was a solar trigger today, and several thinner windslabs out of steep terrain. The clouds kept the snow surface cool until about 2pm when things got hot up high. Also worth noting was new surface hoar growing on everything between ~1900m and 2300m in the Rudis and Molars areas.
- Weather
- Cloudy, Sunny, Warm
- Ride type
- Alpine slopes, Open trees, Steep slopes
- Stayed away
- Sunny slopes
- Riding quality
- Good
- Snow conditions
- Powder, Wind affected
- Avalanche conditions
- Avalanche condition slab, Avalanche condition temp
Avalanche report
- Comment
- looked like it could have been a solar trigger from steep, thin, rocky start zone. Ran full path and also took out slabs in the sidewalls of the track.
- Run length
- 250
- Slab width
- 75
- Trigger type
- Natural
- Avalanche size
- 2.5
- Slab thickness
- 80
- Start zone aspect
- SW
- Start zone incline
- 40
- Avalanche character
- Persistent slab
- Number of avalanches
- 2-5
- Avalanche observation
- 12hrsAgo
- Start zone elevation band
- Alp
- Avalanche occurrence datetime
- 2025-12-31T17:00:00.000Z