Winter is off to a good Start

A strong flow of moisture has pummelled Southern BC this past week, dropping over 70cm of snow in the mountains since last Friday. This is exactly what we're looking for; steady precipitation and moderate temperatures will build a great base for the rest of the season.

In the Kootenays, around Nelson and further north to the highway 31A corridor, alpine snow depths are ranging from 80 cm to 120cm. The Southridge weather station is showing an HS of 78cm at 1990m. Approximately 35-50cm sit on top of the November 8 melt freeze crust on solar aspects. (Remember it was +3 in the alpine for 24hours last week.) That crust is less apparent on shaded aspects in the alpine. Freezing levels remained high over last weekend and bumped up to nearly 1900m with steady precipitation. However FLs dropped by Monday afternoon and the Whitewater ski area received nearly 40cm overnight on Monday.

Snow depths taper quickly with elevation. Today in the norther Kokanee Range, the HS ranged from 85-115cm in the alpine to 50-70cm at 1800m and 10cm at 1200m.

In areas travelled this week, there was evidence of a natural avalanche cycle during the storm to size 2.5, some of which failed on the November 8 crust (30-50cm above the ground) and others looked to be glide slabs that released at or just above the ground on steep unsupported features. There are still lots of early season hazards such as rocks, logs, creeks, holes etc.

Around Rogers Pass, Mt Fidelity is showing 120cm at 1905m. Similarly, HS varies significantly with elevation. In the alpine HS is closer to 150cm while at the RPDC the HS is sitting at 35cm

Outlook

We'll experience a cooling trend this weekend starting with alpine overnight lows to -12 at 1900m tonight. This will tighten up the snowpack, but will cause near surface faceting. However, this clearing will be short lived with more snow arriving late in the afternoon. Some models are predicting another 70cm of snow above 1800m this week with freezing levels approaching valley bottom. Fingers crossed!

Here's a link to Avalanche Canada's Mountain Weather Forecast

We still have some availability in our Crevasse Rescue and Glacier Travel Courses in December. Due to the solid start to the season, we are also offering a December special for private guiding. If you'd like to explore some snowmobile accessed ski touring on a quiet part of the Powder Highway, drop a line for details