[MCR] South Purcells

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hello,

I wanted to pass on some snowpack observations from a trip into the
upper St Mary's drainage in the southern part of the CAC's South
Columbia forecast area.

There is about 40cm of storm snow overlying the variety of surfaces that
were buried around Dec 28. The most notable is a layer of large surface
hoar (2cm thick) that is present in the 1500m - 2000m elevation band.
Yesterday this layer began producing small skier triggered avalanches as
soon as the storm snow developed the slightest hint of slabbiness. There
were a few natural slides in the size 1 range overnight and by the end
of the day today there was a 40cm soft slab that could best be described
as 'hair trigger'. Any open area would predictably fail and propagate
with human weight and cause avalanches up to size 2 wherever the terrain
was steep enough. Some of these were triggered from around 100m away.

Did not venture into the alpine due to poor visibility, but there were
pockets of non-reactive windslab near treeline. Height of snow was 190cm
at 2200m.

Heads up out there right now, that low elevation surface hoar layer
could turn out to be a persistent problem. 

Jeff Volp
SG
Kimberley, BC 


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